New Delhi: India has conveyed its “serious concern” to Saudi Arabia for a just lately issued banknote with an “incorrect depiction of India’s external territorial boundaries”, the international ministry mentioned on Thursday.
The word had appeared to exclude Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh from India. “The note was issued by Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority on October 24 to mark the occasion of Saudi presidency of the G20,” the Ministry of External Affairs mentioned at a briefing. “We have conveyed our serious concern to Saudi Arabia, both through their Ambassador in New Delhi as well as in Riyadh, for this gross misrepresentation of India’s external territorial boundaries on an official and legal banknote of Saudi Arabia and asked the Saudi side for taking urgent corrective steps in this regard,” it mentioned.
“I would like to further reiterate that entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are integral parts of India,” the ministry spokesperson mentioned. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to court docket Saudi Arabia lately, strengthening commerce ties and with broader diplomatic overtures in efforts to place stress on Pakistan, one of many Arab nation’s closest allies.
Last yr., he broke with authorities protocol to personally welcome Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the New Delhi airport.
The gesture was hailed as “a new chapter in bilateral relations” by the then international ministry spokesperson who tweeted {a photograph} of the pair warmly clasping fingers by the steps of the prince’s airplane.
During a go to later that yr, PM Modi met King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the Crown Prince and signed a slew of power offers. India, the world’s third-biggest oil client, is a key shopper of Saudi Arabia.
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