Modi to visit Saudi Arabia for talks on trade, energy in April

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Saudi Arabia for a two-day bilateral visit as part of his threenation trip from March 30.

He is said to hold talks with the Saudi leadership on key regional and bilateral issues, including trade and energy.

His visit, which comes nearly six years after the last Prime Ministerial visit to Riyadh, assumes significance given the current regional situation and strained ties between SA and Iran, another strategically important country for India.

He will also visit Washington to attend the Nuclear Security Summit, where his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to be present.

Starting his visit with Belgium on March 30 for India- EU Summit, Modi will travel to Washington for NSS from March 31 before his visit from April 2 to Saudi Arabia.

While officials are tight-lipped about a possible interaction between Modi and Sharif on the sidelines of the event, experts feel that given both the leaders have held impromptu meetings in the recent past -- be it in Paris or Lahore -- it will be difficult for them to avoid each other completely.

This would be the first time after Modi’s unannounced and brief visit to Lahore on December 25 that the two leaders will be at the same place. Since then, the Pathankot terror attack has happened which has delayed the Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level talks.