Saudi Arabia’s al-Jubeir meets with Indian officials

ISTANBUL (AA) – Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir met with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday in New Delhi.</p> <p>Al-Jubeir is currently on his first visit to India, only days after visiting Pakistan.</p> <p>According to the Saudi Foreign Ministry, al-Jubeir also met with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj.</p> <p>The ministry did not, however, provide any detail regarding the topics addressed at the meeting, nor did it mention the duration of al-Jubeir’s visit.</p> <p>On Sunday, the United News of India reported that al-Jubeir would arrive in India on Monday before meeting Swaraj to discuss bilateral and regional issues.</p> <p>The Business Standard, a local Indian newspaper, for its part, reported that al-Jubeir’s visit would last only between four and five hours.</p> <p>Last Thursday, al-Jubeir paid a day-long visit to Islamabad in hopes of offsetting mounting tensions between India and Pakistan.</p> <p>Tensions between the two neighbors have escalated since a suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir in mid-February left at least 40 Indian troops dead.</p> <p>Tensions mounted further following last week’s skirmish between the two countries’ air forces in which both sides claimed to have downed each other's aircraft.</p> <p>The two South Asian nations have fought three wars — in 1948, 1965 and 1971 — since they were partitioned in 1947.</p> <p>Saudi offers of mediation, meanwhile, are unlikely to impress New Delhi, which has a history of rejecting third-party mediation — especially in regards to the Kashmir dispute.</p> <p>Saudi Arabia has long been an economic and strategic partner of Islamabad. But Riyadh has avoided getting involved in the Pakistan-India row as it maintains large investments in both countries.</p> <p>Last month, Saudi Arabia signed trade and investment deals with Pakistan worth some $20 billion, including the establishment of an oil refinery in Pakistan’s strategic port city of Gwadar.</p> <p>And last year, Saudi state oil company Aramco signed a $44-billion deal with India to build a mega-refinery on India's west coast.