Ajit Doval to visit Saudi Arabia: Regional issues, countering Pak’s Kashmir narrative on the cards

New Delhi, Oct 02: National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval would visit Saudi Arabia today and would hold discussions with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

Apart from discussions on a host of regional issues, the focus would also be Kashmir, sources tell OneIndia. The decision of the Centre to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir would top the discussions.

Top officials say that the discussions around Article 370 would focus more on India's stand on it and why the decision was taken. The key point that would however be driven across by Doval that Kashmir is an internal matter of India.

The visit by the NSA comes close on the heels of a stopover made by Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan at Riyadh. Khan has been trying to get Islamic nations together and dish out support on the Kashmir issue. He has managed to garner support from Turkey, Malaysia and China. However Saudi Arabia and UAE have taken a neutral stand on the issue.

Doval during the discussions while mentioning that the issue is an internal one, would also explain the logic behind the decision. India had taken this decision to integrate Kashmir with the rest of India. It is also a move that would benefit the Kashmiris largely in terms of both development and jobs, Doval would also state.

In August Doval was in Russia and managed to get the complete backing of the nation on the Kashmir issue. The meeting between Doval and his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev turned out to be a fruitful one. Russia had completely backed India's decision to abrogate Article 370.

The situation in the region was discussed in detail by Doval, who visited Moscow on the invitation of Patrushev.

A statement that was released after the discussions said that, 'both sides reaffirmed their intention to intensify counter- terrorism cooperation. The longstanding position of both sides on the importance of their bilateral consultations and the mutual support for principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-interference of third parties was reiterated.'