Each side deliberated on the funding treaty at a gathering between finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Saudi Arabia's funding minister Khalid Al-Falih within the nationwide capital.
Such treaties often assist in defending and inspiring investments in one another's international locations.
Throughout Prime Minister Narendra Modi's go to to Saudi Arabia in April on the invitation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, either side had agreed to expedite the BIT negotiations. Within the price range for 2025-26, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced a revamp of the BIT framework to attract international traders.
Subsequently, senior authorities officers had stated India was pursuing BITs with over a dozen international locations, together with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, Oman, the EU, Switzerland, Russia, and Australia. The transfer is a part of the broader efforts by the federal government to attract international traders at a time when the nation is transferring quick in the direction of rising because the world's third-largest economic system. The federal government can also be taking steps to spice up investments in manufacturing.
FDI inflows from Saudi Arabia touched $3.3 billion over 25 years by means of March 2025, or simply 0.45% of the whole, with consultants pointing at potential for a lot bigger inflows.Nonetheless, Saudi Arabia is a serious commerce accomplice. Whereas India's exports to Saudi Arabia have been to the tune of $12 billion in FY25, its imports, primarily comprising petroleum merchandise, have been in extra of $30 billion. Between 1996 and 2016, India had signed BITs with dozens of nations on the idea of an previous template that led to litigations in a number of instances. This prompted the federal government to agency up a brand new template in 2016 and began to barter on the idea of that. Nonetheless, it now feels that even the 2016 template requires to be revised, officers had stated earlier.
