India–Saudi Arabia trade corridor No bilateral FTA · India–GCC negotiations launched February 2026

Rendered from the All Frontier Global corridor registry · every figure below carries a numbered source

There is no bilateral India–Saudi Arabia free trade agreement. The trade-agreement track runs through the India–GCC negotiation, whose Terms of Reference were signed on 5 February 2026 and whose negotiations were launched on 24 February 2026[1]; the bilateral vehicle is the Strategic Partnership Council[2]. This page renders the corridor registry record — the official trade values, a deficit the registry flags as derived rather than sourced, the commodity split, the energy and investment mechanics, the corridor and port logistics, and the figures no official source would supply.

At a glance

• Agreement statusNo bilateral FTA; India–GCC FTA negotiations launched 24 February 2026[1]Terms of Reference signed 5 February 2026, ahead of the launch[1]. No agreement text has been concluded, signed or brought into force.
• Headline tradeUS$41.88 bn total, FY2024-25[3]The most recent complete Indian fiscal year with an official export/import split.
• BalanceUS$18.37 bn deficit, FY2024-25 — derived by subtraction within one official table, not stated by any source[3]The registry flags this figure as derived and shows its working: imports less exports, both exact figures from the same Embassy of India, Riyadh table — see Not yet verified.
• Institutional vehicleIndia–Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council[2]India and Saudi Arabia agreed in principle in 2025 to establish a Joint Working Group on Trade, Economy and Finance under the Strategic Partnership Council's Minister-level Economy and Investment Committee. India submitted Terms of Reference proposing co-chairmanship at Additional Secretary level; both sides were considering convening the first meeting.[4]

The framework

No bilateral India-Saudi Arabia free trade agreement exists. The two countries' trade-agreement track runs through the India-GCC Free Trade Agreement (Saudi Arabia is a GCC member state); the bilateral institutional vehicle is the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council (SPC).[1][2]

No Government of India or Saudi source located in this research pass describes a standalone bilateral India-Saudi FTA/CEPA. PIB's India-GCC FTA release (24 Feb 2026) and the April 2025 India-Saudi Joint Statement together frame the relationship as SPC-based plus GCC-track. Contrast with India-UAE, which has a bilateral CEPA.

The India–GCC negotiation

FTA talks between India and the GCC began with the signing of a framework agreement in 2004, followed by two rounds in 2006 and 2008. The GCC paused negotiations with all partners in 2011. Talks resumed following the GCC Secretary General's November 2022 visit to India; both sides then exchanged updated Terms of Reference versions.[4]

Terms of Reference were signed 5 February 2026[1]. Terms of Reference (ToR) for the India-GCC FTA signed on 5 February 2026, ahead of the 24 February 2026 Joint Statement launching negotiations. The Joint Statement launching negotiations followed on 24 February 2026[1]. Date the India-GCC FTA Joint Statement was signed, formally launching negotiations. This is a launch of negotiations, NOT signature of an FTA. Corroborated by the GCC Secretariat General (gcc-sg.org), which names the signatories as GCC Secretary General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi and India's Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal.

The bilateral machinery

Established following Prime Minister Modi's October 2019 visit to Riyadh. As of April 2025 it comprises four Ministerial Committees: (1) Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation; (2) Economy and Investment; (3) Defence Cooperation; (4) Tourism and Cultural Cooperation. The Defence and the Tourism/Cultural committees were newly created at the April 2025 summit, expanding the Council from two committees to four.[2]

Committee names as given in the April 2025 Joint Statement (pib.gov.in PRID=2123722). Council founding date (October 2019 Riyadh visit) from Embassy of India, Riyadh. Independently corroborated by the Saudi Press Agency (spa.gov.sa/en/N2304251), the Kingdom's official state news agency.[5]

Bilateral Investment Treaty: Under negotiation, not concluded. The April 2025 Joint Statement records that 'The two sides affirmed their desire to complete negotiations on the Bilateral Investment Treaty at the earliest.'[5]

The Saudi Press Agency's summary of the same summit (spa.gov.sa/en/N2304251) lists 'Completion of Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations' among agreed items, which reads as more advanced. The Indian Joint Statement's own verbatim wording ('affirmed their desire to complete negotiations at the earliest') is treated as authoritative here because it is the primary bilateral text; the discrepancy is flagged in Not yet verified.

India and Saudi Arabia agreed in principle in 2025 to establish a Joint Working Group on Trade, Economy and Finance under the Strategic Partnership Council's Minister-level Economy and Investment Committee. India submitted Terms of Reference proposing co-chairmanship at Additional Secretary level; both sides were considering convening the first meeting.[4]

Primary official sources for the framework: [1][2][5][4][6][7][8]

Trade flows

For FY2024-25 (April 2024-March 2025) the Embassy of India, Riyadh states total bilateral trade of US$41.88 bn[3], with India’s exports at US$11.76 bn and imports at US$30.12 bn[3]. Saudi Arabia is India's 5th largest trade partner and India is Saudi Arabia's 2nd largest trade partner, per the Embassy of India, Riyadh. The April 2025 India-Saudi Joint Statement states the same ranking for 2023-2024 (pib.gov.in PRID=2123722).

The deficit, and why it is marked derived

The registry carries a FY2024-25 deficit of US$18.37 bn in Saudi Arabia’s favour, and flags it in-registry as derived rather than sourced: it is obtained by subtraction within a single official table — the Embassy of India, Riyadh figures of US$30,121.4 mn of imports less US$11,756.23 mn of exports for the same period — because no official source states the balance as a figure in its own right[3]. It is the one number on this page that no source publishes directly, and it is labelled as such wherever it appears.

Stated as US$ 41.88 billion in the narrative text; the accompanying table gives US$ 41,877.63 million. This is the most recent COMPLETE Indian fiscal year with an official export/import split.[3]

Peak bilateral trade in this series is FY2022-23 at US$52.76bn, reflecting elevated crude oil prices; the total has declined in each of the two subsequent full years while India's exports have risen steadily every year since FY2020-21.[3]

Corroborating series and the view from the other side

• Consulate General of India, Jeddah (Government of India)[9]

  FY2023-24: total US$42.97bn (exports US$11.56bn, imports US$31.42bn), described as 4.53% of India's total trade. Matches the Embassy of India, Riyadh series for the same year.

• General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — International Trade in Goods report, October 2025[10]

  From the Saudi side, India ranked 3rd among destinations for Saudi exports at 9.9% of total Saudi exports (behind China 14.1% and UAE 10.9%), and appeared among Saudi Arabia's top 10 import sources. GASTAT publishes partner shares but no India-specific SAR values in this report.

• Government of India, Press Information Bureau — India-GCC FTA release, 24 February 2026[1]

  GCC-wide context for the Saudi corridor: India-GCC bilateral trade FY2024-25 was US$178.56bn (Indian exports US$56.87bn, Indian imports US$121.68bn), representing 15.42% of India's total global trade, with a 5-year average growth rate of 15.3%. Saudi Arabia's US$41.88bn is roughly 23% of that GCC total.

Top goods, each direction

The Embassy names the baskets and prices only a couple of lines inside them; a partial-year valued split comes from a second publisher. Both are shown as published, and the unvalued names are not given values from anywhere else.

Verbatim: 'Major commodities of export from India to Saudi Arabia include engineering goods, rice, vehicles and associated equipment, chemicals, textiles, food products, gems & jewelry, pharma.' Only textiles and pharmaceuticals carry dollar values in this source.[3]

Verbatim: 'Major commodities of import for India from Saudi Arabia are Crude oil, LPG, fertilizers, chemicals, plastic and products thereof.'[3]

Quasi-official: IBEF is a Ministry of Commerce and Industry-established trust, not a primary statistical agency. Used because DGCI&S commodity-level data could not be fetched (see Not yet verified). 'Cereals' is the HS-chapter label under which rice — named separately by the Embassy of India — falls.[11]

Petroleum crude alone is roughly 71% of India's imports from Saudi Arabia in this partial period, confirming the corridor's hydrocarbon concentration. IBEF gives FY26 (through November 2025) bilateral trade of approximately US$27.18bn.[11]

Prior-year corroboration

Included as prior-year corroboration. Note this list adds 'petroleum products' as an Indian export category (refined product re-export), which the later Embassy of India FY2024-25 list omits.[9]

Mechanics and open issues

Energy sets the shape of this corridor, and the registry keeps volumes, shares and dollar values in the units and years their sources actually used.

• Energy dependence — crude oil[3]

  India imported 33.14 MMT (million metric tonnes) of crude oil from Saudi Arabia in FY2024-25, which was 13.58% of India's total crude oil imports. For FY2023-24 the comparable figures were 33.35 MMT, 14.3% of India's total crude imports, valued at US$22,083.4 million, with Saudi Arabia ranked as India's 3rd largest crude sourcing destination.

  Volume and percentage share are officially stated. No official FY2024-25 dollar value for crude specifically was located, nor an officially stated FY2024-25 sourcing rank.

  Source organisation: Embassy of India, Riyadh (Government of India); FY2023-24 value, share and rank from Consulate General of India, Jeddah (cgijeddah.gov.in/content-page-MTY4.html)

• Energy dependence — LPG[3]

  India imported 3.34 MMT of LPG from Saudi Arabia in FY2024-25, which was 14.99% of India's total LPG imports, valued at US$2,198.82 million. For FY2023-24: 3.43 MMT, 18.57% of India's total LPG imports, valued at US$2,149.33 million, with Saudi Arabia ranked 3rd sourcing destination.

  Source organisation: Embassy of India, Riyadh (Government of India); FY2023-24 figures from Consulate General of India, Jeddah (cgijeddah.gov.in/content-page-MTY4.html)

• Crude sourcing diversification — Indian government position[12]

  As of March 2026 India procures crude from around 40 countries and consumes approximately 55 lakh (5.5 million) barrels per day. The Government of India states that 70 percent of India's crude imports now arrive via routes outside the Strait of Hormuz, up from 55 percent previously.

  This release does not break out a Saudi-specific share. It is included because the Hormuz-routing shift bears directly on the Saudi corridor's logistics exposure. Saudi crude to India can move via both Gulf (Hormuz) and Red Sea terminals.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau — Inter-Ministerial Briefing on Recent Developments in West Asia, 11 March 2026

• Energy cooperation commitments[5]

  In the April 2025 Joint Statement both sides noted the agreement in the High-Level Task Force to collaborate on establishing two refineries in India, addressed 'the supply of crude oil and its derivatives including LPG', and committed to completing a detailed joint study for electrical interconnection between the two countries.

  Corroborated by the Saudi Press Agency (spa.gov.sa/en/N2304251). No refinery locations, capacities, timelines or capital figures were stated in either source.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau — Joint Statement, State Visit of Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia, 22 April 2025

• Saudi investment commitment into India[2]

  Saudi Arabia committed to invest US$100 billion in India across energy, petrochemicals, infrastructure, technology, fintech and digital infrastructure among other sectors. The commitment was pledged during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's September 2023 State Visit to India and reaffirmed at the April 2025 summit. At the first meeting of the India-Saudi High-Level Task Force on Investments (28 July 2024, virtual), India committed to 'provide active support to Saudi investments of the order of US$ 100 billion'; sectors discussed were refining and petrochemical plants, renewable and new energy, power generation, telecommunications and innovation, and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) was invited to establish an India office.

  This is an announced commitment/target, not deployed capital. The HLTF meeting was co-chaired on the Indian side by the Principal Secretary to the PM and on the Saudi side by the Minister of Energy.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau — 'List of Outcomes: State Visit of Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia' (22 April 2025); HLTF detail from PIB PRID=2038188 (28 July 2024)

• Investment stocks — both directions[3]

  Indian investments in Saudi Arabia: approximately 2,923 registered entities with about US$3 billion of total investment as of August 2023, estimated by the Embassy to have since risen to close to 5,000 companies. Saudi investments in India: approximately US$10 billion in total, including PIF in Reliance Jio (US$1.5bn, 2.32% stake), PIF in Reliance Retail (US$1.3bn, 2.04% stake), Al Fanar wind/solar (approximately US$700 million), Abdul Latif Jameel in Greaves Electric (US$150 million), SABIC technology centre (over US$100 million), Elm in HealthifyMe (US$75 million), SALIC in LT Foods (US$44 million, 9.2% stake) and SALIC in Daawat Foods (US$17.23 million, 30% stake).

  IBEF separately reports cumulative Saudi FDI equity inflow into India of US$3.29 billion for April 2000-September 2025 (ibef.org/indian-exports/india-saudi-arabia-trade). The Embassy's approximately US$10bn figure is broader than registered FDI equity inflow and the two are not directly comparable.

  Source organisation: Embassy of India, Riyadh (Government of India)

• MoUs and agreements signed — April 2025 State Visit[2]

  Four government-to-government MoUs were signed on 22 April 2025 in Jeddah: (1) Saudi Space Agency and India's Department of Space, on cooperation in space activities for peaceful purposes; (2) Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia and India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; (3) Saudi Arabian Anti-Doping Committee and India's National Anti-Doping Agency; (4) Saudi Post Corporation and India's Department of Posts, on inward surface parcel cooperation.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau

• Earlier MoU rounds[3]

  During the September 2023 Saudi Crown Prince State Visit to India, 8 government MoUs were signed, and more than 50 MoUs (B2B and B2G) were concluded during the India-Saudi Investment Forum held alongside it.

  Source organisation: Embassy of India, Riyadh (Government of India)

• Diaspora[8]

  The Indian community in Saudi Arabia numbers approximately 2.74 million, the largest expatriate community in the Kingdom. The April 2025 Joint Statement refers to 'around 2.7 million Indian nationals residing in the Kingdom'. India's annual Hajj quota is 175,025 pilgrims, and an average of 1.5 million Indian pilgrims perform Umrah each year.

  Source organisation: Embassy of India, Riyadh (Government of India); the 'around 2.7 million' formulation from PIB Joint Statement PRID=2123722 and from the Saudi Press Agency (spa.gov.sa/en/N2304251)

• Remittances[13]

  Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, addressing the Indian community in Riyadh, stated that India received US$125 billion in remittances in the preceding year, with nearly 10% of that coming from Saudi Arabia.

  This is a ministerial statement reported by a Government of India outlet, not a Reserve Bank of India or MEA statistical release. 'Nearly 10%' of US$125bn implies roughly US$12bn but the source does not state a Saudi-specific dollar figure and none should be quoted as such. No RBI or MEA country-disaggregated Saudi remittance figure could be fetched — see Not yet verified.

  Source organisation: All India Radio / Prasar Bharati (Government of India public broadcaster), 31 October 2024

• Defence procurement[3]

  Munitions India Limited secured a US$225 million contract for the supply of artillery ammunition, announced around the World Defence Show in February 2024.

  The Embassy page does not state the counterparty country for this contract explicitly in the extracted text; it appears in the India-Saudi commercial brief in the context of the Riyadh World Defence Show.

  Source organisation: Embassy of India, Riyadh (Government of India)

Logistics

The corridor’s headline logistics story is the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor, which exists here as a multilateral memorandum and political recommitment rather than a bilateral instrument. One officially announced India–Saudi port pair was located.

• IMEC — India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor[14]

  A Memorandum of Understanding on the Principles of an India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor was signed on 9 September 2023 at the G20 Summit in New Delhi by India, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, Italy, France and Germany. The corridor comprises two routes: an Eastern Corridor connecting India to the Gulf, and a Northern Corridor connecting the Gulf to Europe. It is to encompass a railway and ship-rail transit network plus road transport routes. Saudi Arabia is a founding signatory and sits on the land bridge between the two corridors.

  The PIB release refers to the signed document as the 'Project-Gateway-multilateral-MOU' and does not name specific ports or cities on either corridor leg.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau — Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) & IMEC

• IMEC — bilateral India-Saudi status[5]

  In the April 2025 Joint Statement both sides 'recalled the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Principles of an India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor along with other countries in September 2023' and committed to 'realize the vision of connectivity as envisaged in the Corridor, including the development of infrastructure that includes railways and port linkages.'

  STATUS: political recommitment only. As of the most recent official sources fetched, no India-Saudi IMEC-specific inter-governmental framework agreement, route map, funded project, port designation or construction milestone was located. India has signed an IMEC inter-governmental framework agreement with the UAE (Cabinet approval, PIB PRID=2014134) but no equivalent India-Saudi instrument was found.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau — Joint Statement, 22 April 2025

• IMEC — projected benefits (ministerial statement, not measured)[15]

  Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, speaking on 16 April 2025, described IMEC as capable of reducing logistics costs by up to 30% and cutting transportation time by 40%, and characterised it as a modern Silk Route partnership. He noted India is engaged in dialogue with Saudi Arabia (alongside the UAE and Singapore) on the corridor, specifically on energy infrastructure. He set out five forward-looking recommendations (PPP framework, regulatory connectivity alignment, innovative financing including green bonds, industry body engagement, think tank/academic involvement).

  The 30% and 40% figures are stated projections/aspirations in a ministerial address, not measured outcomes. No implementation timeline or completed milestone is given in this release.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau

• Jeddah Islamic Port (Saudi Arabia) <-> Mundra Port (India) — 'SRS' service[16]

  The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) added the 'SRS' shipping service, operated by Emirates Shipping Line, linking Jeddah Islamic Port with Mundra Port in India and the Port of Djibouti. The service handles vessels of up to 2,144 TEU capacity and is intended to boost Saudi Arabia's connectivity with global markets and support Red Sea trade.

  This is the only officially-announced, named India-Saudi port pair located in this research pass. Frequency/rotation was not stated in the source.

  Source organisation: Saudi Press Agency (official state news agency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), reporting Mawani (Saudi Ports Authority), 3 June 2026

• Saudi port-pair coverage generally[17]

  Mawani (Saudi Ports Authority) routinely announces new liner services at Jeddah Islamic Port and King Abdullah Port via the Saudi Press Agency, including services connecting Saudi ports to India (e.g. CMA CGM routes connecting Saudi ports to India, Oman and Iraq).

  Listed as evidence that the Jeddah/King Abdullah Port <-> India lane is officially maintained and expanded, without asserting specific Indian ports beyond Mundra (the SRS service above). No official Government of India source was found designating specific Indian ports as Saudi-corridor gateways — see Not yet verified.

  Source organisation: Saudi Press Agency, reporting Mawani (Saudi Ports Authority)

Developments 2025–26

• 16 April 2025

  Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal frames India as a 'trusted bridge of global connectivity' through IMEC; names Saudi Arabia among dialogue partners[15]

  Goyal cited projected IMEC benefits of up to 30% lower logistics costs and 40% shorter transport times, and set out five recommendations for advancing the corridor. Saudi Arabia named as a country India is engaged in dialogue with on the corridor, specifically on energy infrastructure. No signed milestones or timelines announced.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau

• 22 April 2025

  Prime Minister Modi's State Visit to Saudi Arabia (Jeddah); Strategic Partnership Council expanded from two to four Ministerial Committees[2]

  New Defence Cooperation Committee and Tourism and Cultural Cooperation Committee established. Saudi Arabia's US$100 billion India investment commitment reaffirmed across energy, petrochemicals, infrastructure, technology, fintech and digital infrastructure. Both sides agreed to collaborate on establishing two refineries in India, affirmed their desire to complete Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations at the earliest, recommitted to IMEC including railways and port linkages, and agreed to complete a joint study on electrical interconnection. Four government MoUs signed (space, health, anti-doping, posts).

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau; Joint Statement text at PIB PRID=2123722; independently corroborated by the Saudi Press Agency (spa.gov.sa/en/N2304251)

• 10 December 2025

  Department of Commerce 2025 Year End Review records agreement in principle on an India-Saudi Joint Working Group on Trade, Economy and Finance[4]

  The JWG sits under the Strategic Partnership Council's Minister-level Economy and Investment Committee. India submitted Terms of Reference proposing co-chairmanship at Additional Secretary level; both sides were considering convening the first meeting. The same review sets out the India-GCC FTA history and states that updated Terms of Reference had been exchanged.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau

• 5 February 2026

  Terms of Reference for the India-GCC Free Trade Agreement signed[1]

  ToR signed ahead of the formal launch of negotiations later the same month.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau

• 2026-02-08/09

  India opens its first-ever India Pavilion at the World Defence Show 2026 in Riyadh[18]

  Raksha Rajya Mantri (Minister of State for Defence) Sanjay Seth led the delegation and inaugurated the pavilion, which showcased Defence Public Sector Undertakings and private Indian companies. He met Saudi Arabia's Assistant Minister of Defence and officials of the General Authority for Defence Development (GADD) and the General Authority of Military Industries (GAMI), and invited reciprocal GADD/GAMI delegations to India. No contracts or MoUs were announced in the release.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau

• 24 February 2026

  India and the GCC formally launch Free Trade Agreement negotiations — the principal trade-agreement vehicle for the India-Saudi corridor[1]

  A Joint Statement was signed by GCC Secretary General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi and India's Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, formally launching negotiations for a comprehensive trade agreement. Goyal said the Joint Statement together with the Terms of Reference 'mark a significant milestone in the relationship between India and GCC countries.' PIB stated India-GCC trade in FY2024-25 at US$178.56 billion (Indian exports US$56.87bn, imports US$121.68bn), 15.42% of India's total global trade.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau; corroborated by the GCC Secretariat General (gcc-sg.org/en/MediaCenter/News/Pages/news-2026-2-24-5.aspx)

• 11 March 2026

  Government of India inter-ministerial briefing on West Asia: 70% of India's crude imports now routed outside the Strait of Hormuz[12]

  Up from 55% previously. India now procures crude from around 40 countries, consuming approximately 55 lakh barrels per day, with refineries at very high capacity utilisation. No Saudi-specific share was given, but the routing shift is directly material to the Saudi energy corridor.

  Source organisation: Government of India, Press Information Bureau

• 3 June 2026

  Mawani (Saudi Ports Authority) adds the 'SRS' shipping service linking Jeddah Islamic Port with Mundra Port, India, and the Port of Djibouti[16]

  Operated by Emirates Shipping Line, handling vessels of up to 2,144 TEU. Positioned as boosting Saudi Arabia's connectivity with global markets across the Red Sea.

  Source organisation: Saudi Press Agency (official state news agency), reporting Mawani (Saudi Ports Authority)

Not yet verified

The registry records what could not be sourced as well as what could. These are open items, listed exactly as the registry states them — not gaps we have filled from memory or inference.

• No official source publishes a COMPLETED FY2025-26 (April 2025-March 2026) India-Saudi Arabia full-year trade total, despite that fiscal year having ended on 31 March 2026 and today being 12 August 2026. The Embassy of India, Riyadh table stops at an April-December 2025 nine-month partial (US$30,802.28mn total, US$7,773.75mn exports, US$23,028.53mn imports). The headline full-year figure in this file is therefore FY2024-25 (US$41.88bn). Do NOT annualise the nine-month partial — that would be an estimate, not a sourced fact.[3]
• The India-Saudi trade deficit is not stated as a figure in its own right by ANY official source located. The US$18.37bn deficit recorded in the trade-flows record above is computed by subtracting two exact official figures published in the same Embassy of India, Riyadh table (US$30,121.40mn imports minus US$11,756.23mn exports) and is explicitly flagged as derived in that object.[3]
• MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) country-brief PDFs — mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/India-Saudi_Arabia.pdf, India-KSA-26.pdf, KSA_Wesbite.pdf and Unclassified_Bilateral_Brief.pdf — all returned HTTP 403 on repeated fetch attempts, as did mea.gov.in/rajya-sabha.htm and mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm. The MEA-hosted content was substituted with the same or equivalent text from PIB (pib.gov.in), the Embassy of India Riyadh (eoiriyadh.gov.in) and the Consulate General of India Jeddah (cgijeddah.gov.in), all Government of India sources.
• commerce.gov.in's Export Import Data Bank could not be queried for Saudi Arabia during this pass: the trade-statistics landing page (commerce.gov.in/trade-statistics/) lists the data-bank tools but exposes no fetchable country-specific URL structure, and the query interface is form-driven. Commodity-level values were therefore taken from IBEF (a Ministry of Commerce and Industry-established trust) rather than from DGCI&S/Department of Commerce primary data.
• DGCI&S commodity-level source located at itj.dgciskol.gov.in ('saudi arabia bilateral trade relations' PDF) was surfaced by search but is served over plain HTTP on a domain that has previously failed TLS validation in this pipeline; it was not fetched and none of its content is used.
• No Reserve Bank of India or MEA country-disaggregated remittance figure for Saudi Arabia could be fetched. The MEA background paper on GCC-to-India remittances (mea.gov.in/images/RemittancesfromtheGCCtoIndia.pdf) returned HTTP 403. The only officially-stated remittance datapoint in this file is Minister Piyush Goyal's October 2024 statement, via All India Radio, that India received US$125bn in remittances in the preceding year with 'nearly 10%' from Saudi Arabia — a ministerial statement, not a statistical release, and it yields no exact Saudi dollar figure.[13]
• GASTAT (General Authority for Statistics, Saudi Arabia) publishes partner SHARES but no India-specific SAR or USD bilateral values in its monthly International Trade in Goods reports. The October 2025 report gives India as the 3rd-ranked destination for Saudi exports at 9.9% of total exports and places India among the top 10 import sources without stating its rank or share. GASTAT's Q4 2025 news release (stats.gov.sa/en/w/news/168, 25 February 2026) contains no India-specific content at all. No Saudi-side bilateral value figure is therefore available to cross-check the Indian FY2024-25 US$41.88bn total, and the two sides also report on different calendar bases (Saudi calendar year vs Indian April-March fiscal year), so the figures are not directly comparable.[10][3]
• The Saudi Vision 2030 official site (vision2030.gov.sa) returned only page metadata with no extractable body content, so no Vision 2030 official statement on India, the India corridor, or IMEC could be sourced. No Vision 2030 content is used in this file.
• IMEC has NO India-Saudi bilateral implementing instrument that could be located. Only the multilateral MoU on Principles (9 September 2023, eight signatories including Saudi Arabia) and political recommitment language in the April 2025 Joint Statement exist. India has a Cabinet-approved IMEC inter-governmental framework agreement with the UAE (PIB PRID=2014134) but no equivalent India-Saudi instrument, route map, funded project, designated port or construction milestone was found. The 30% logistics-cost and 40% transit-time figures are ministerial projections, not measured outcomes, and are labelled as such.[15]
• Bilateral Investment Treaty status carries a source discrepancy: the Government of India Joint Statement (PIB PRID=2123722) says the two sides 'affirmed their desire to complete negotiations on the Bilateral Investment Treaty at the earliest', while the Saudi Press Agency's summary of the same summit (spa.gov.sa/en/N2304251) lists 'Completion of Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations' among agreed items. The Indian primary text is used. No signed India-Saudi BIT was found on dea.gov.in or mea.gov.in treaty lists.
• The Embassy of India Riyadh page at /page/india-saudi-arabia-economic-and-commercial-relations/ and the April 2025 Joint Statement mirror at /page/joint-statement-at-the-conclusion-of-the-state-visit.../ both failed with redirect loops. The economic-and-commercial-brief page and the bilateral-relations page on the same domain fetched successfully and were used instead; the Joint Statement was obtained from PIB.
• No Government of India source was found designating specific Indian ports as gateways for Saudi-bound trade. The only officially-named India-Saudi port pair is Jeddah Islamic Port <-> Mundra, via the Saudi Ports Authority's June 2026 'SRS' service announcement. Nhava Sheva/JNPA, Kandla and other candidate Indian nodes appear only in trade-press reporting, which is excluded from this file.
• FY2024-25 crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia are officially given only as a volume (33.14 MMT) and a share (13.58% of India's total crude imports); no FY2024-25 dollar value and no FY2024-25 sourcing rank for Saudi crude was officially stated. The dollar value (US$22,083.4mn) and 3rd-place rank recorded in mechanics are FY2023-24 figures from the Consulate General of India, Jeddah, and are labelled with that year.[3][9]
• The two-refineries commitment carries no officially stated locations, capacities, timelines, or capital figures in either the Indian or Saudi source. Saudi Arabia's US$100 billion investment commitment is an announced target, not deployed capital, and no official source tracks disbursement against it.[2]
• The Munitions India Limited US$225 million artillery ammunition contract appears in the Embassy of India Riyadh commercial brief in the World Defence Show context, but the extracted text does not explicitly name Saudi Arabia as the purchasing counterparty. It is recorded in mechanics with that caveat rather than asserted as an India-Saudi defence sale.[3]

Sources

Numbered to match the markers in the text above. Every figure on this page traces to one of these; nothing is estimated, averaged or carried over from outside the registry.

1. Government of India, Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Commerce and Industry) pib.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
2. Government of India, Press Information Bureau — 'List of Outcomes: State Visit of Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia' pib.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
3. Embassy of India, Riyadh (Government of India) eoiriyadh.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
4. Government of India, Press Information Bureau — 2025 Year End Review, Department of Commerce (released 10 December 2025) pib.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
5. Government of India, Press Information Bureau — Joint Statement, State Visit of Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia, 22 April 2025 pib.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
6. gcc-sg.org accessed 12 August 2026
7. spa.gov.sa accessed 12 August 2026
8. Embassy of India, Riyadh (Government of India); the 'around 2.7 million' formulation from PIB Joint Statement PRID=2123722 and from the Saudi Press Agency (spa.gov.sa/en/N2304251) eoiriyadh.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
9. Consulate General of India, Jeddah (Government of India) cgijeddah.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
10. General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — International Trade in Goods report, October 2025 stats.gov.sa accessed 12 August 2026
11. IBEF (India Brand Equity Foundation, a trust established by India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry) ibef.org accessed 12 August 2026
12. Government of India, Press Information Bureau — Inter-Ministerial Briefing on Recent Developments in West Asia, 11 March 2026 pib.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
13. All India Radio / Prasar Bharati (Government of India public broadcaster), 31 October 2024 newsonair.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
14. Government of India, Press Information Bureau — Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) & IMEC pib.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
15. Government of India, Press Information Bureau pib.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026
16. Saudi Press Agency (official state news agency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), reporting Mawani (Saudi Ports Authority), 3 June 2026 spa.gov.sa accessed 12 August 2026
17. Saudi Press Agency, reporting Mawani (Saudi Ports Authority) spa.gov.sa accessed 12 August 2026
18. Government of India, Press Information Bureau pib.gov.in accessed 12 August 2026

Data verified 12 August 2026 · rendered from the corridor registry.