India, Saudi Arabia to sign Strategic Partnership Council pact

News:India and Saudi Arabia are set to sign an agreement for creating a bilateral strategic partnership council.

Facts:

About the strategic Council:

• The strategic partnership council will be led by Indian Prime minister and Saudi Crown Prince and it will meet every two years.
• The council will include multiple sections involving the External Affairs Ministry and NITI Aayog and counterpart organisations from Saudi Arabia.

About Future Investment Initiative(FII):

• Indian Prime Minister will also be attending the third session of Future Investment Initiative Forum in Saudi Arabia.
• Future Investment Initiative(FII) is an annual investment forum organized by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.It was first conducted in 2017. 
• The first event had announced the launch of a 500 billion USD economic zone in north west of Saudi Arabia.

Significance of Saudi Arabia for India:

• Saudi Arabia is a key pillar of India’s energy security.Around 17% of crude oil and 32% of LPG requirements of India are imported from Saudi Arabia
• The trade between the countries amount to 27.48 billion USD (2017-18). The Indian exports to the country stood at 22.06 billion USD while the imports were 5.41 billion USD.