India, Saudi sign new Riyadh Declaration

Riyadh, Mar 1: India and Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening, Feb 28, signed a new Riyadh Declaration on strategic partnership.

The declaration was signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz at a ceremony at the Al Rawad Palace in Riyadh.

The new declaration said, "The two leaders reviewed the status of implementation of the historic Delhi Declaration signed in 2006, and expressed their satisfaction at the steady expansion of Saudi-India relations since the signing of the Delhi Declaration."

According to the new declaration, the two leaders decided to raise their cooperation to a strategic partnership covering security, economic, defence and political areas.

"The two leaders reiterated their mutual desire to develop as knowledge-based economies based on advances in the areas of information technology, space science and other frontier technologies," it stated.

Manmohan Singh and King Abdullah also called for preservation of Afghanistan's sovereignty and independence.

"They supported the efforts of the people of Afghanistan to achieve stability and security, protected from exploitation by terrorist organizations, while upholding the values and principles of the constitution of Afghanistan," it stated.

OneIndia News