PM Modi departs from Saudi Arabia after three-nation tour

Following the completion of his three nation tour of Belgium, United States and Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for New Delhi on Sunday.

"Ma'a Salama Riyadh! After a successful 3 nation tour, PM @narendramodi departs for Delhi," Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Prior to his departure, Prime Minister Modi tweeted, "Thank you Saudi Arabia. Joined several programmes during my visit, which will deepen economic & people-to-people ties between our nations."

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister held delegation-level talks with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in a move to cement new momentum in bilateral ties between both sides and expand cooperation in diverse areas including trade, investment and counter-terrorism.

Prime Minister Modi expressed his sincere gratitude to His Majesty the King for the warm welcome and gracious hospitality.

King Al Saud also accepted the Prime Minister's invitation to pay an official visit to India at a mutually convenient time.

In a joint statement issued after the talks, the two leaders agreed upon the need to further strengthen these ties, particularly through diversifying non-oil trade.

Highlighting the key initiatives taken by the Indian Government to improve the ease of doing business and efforts to relax the Foreign Direct Investment norms, Prime Minister Modi invited the Saudi companies to invest in the infrastructure sector in India and to participate in projects like Smart Cities as well as the Digital India and Start up India programmes.

India and Saudi Arabia also agreed to further strengthen cooperation in combating terrorism, both at the bilateral level and within the multilateral system of the UN.

Affirming that the menace of extremism and terrorism threatens all nations and societies, the two leaders rejected totally any attempt to link this universal phenomenon to any particular race, religion or culture.

"They called on all states to reject the use of terrorism against other countries; dismantle terrorism infrastructures where they happen to exist and to cut off any kind of support and financing to the terrorists operating and perpetrating terrorism from their territories against other states; and bring perpetrators of acts of terrorism to justice," the joint statement said.

Meanwhile in a special gesture, the Prime Minister was conferred Saudi Arabia's highest civilian honour, the King Abdulaziz Sash. (ANI)