The three-day visit of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to India was marked by the signing of four agreements, including the one on cooperation to combat terrorism. The visit was a landmark in many respects. It was the first visit by a Saudi monarch to India in 51 years. Attaching importance to relations with Saudi Arabia, India extended an invitation and King Abdullah accepted to be the Chief Guest at this year’s Republic Day celebrations, an honour India customarily bestows to a leader from an important and friendly country every year. The importance India attaches to the world’s largest producer of oil became clear when Prime Minister. Manmohan Singh departed from the protocol and drove straight to the airport to receive the Saudi King. Normally, a visiting dignitary is received by India’s External Affairs Minister and then the next day a formal Guard of Honour is held in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan. King Abdullah also reciprocated this gesture when he broke from the normal Saudi practice and personally signed the joint declaration issued at the end of his visit. The Saudi rulers who prefer the designation of the “Custodian of two Holy Mosques” to that of “King “ had never signed bilateral pacts with leaders of other countries. Their custodianship of the holy treasure places them above and beyond secular tasks such as signing agreements. Abdullah buried this tradition to tango with India. “This is the first time that I am going to sign an agreement with any country”, the King himself said just before signing the Delhi Declaration. Ahead of his visit the King called India a second home. Also, in his first statement after reaching India, he said India should get an observer status at the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) and that Pakistan should sponsor it. King Abdullah further earned the praise of India when on the eve of his visit, an Indian worker, Naushad, was pardoned by Saudi Arabia’s Sharia Court which ruled that one of his eyes should be gouged out as punishment for a crime. Naushad had a quarrel with a Saudi customer and in the fighting, the Saudi lost eyesight in one of his eyes. The Court ruled that a similar punishment should be meted out to him. This bodes well for the huge number of Indians employed in Saudi Arabia whose rights and working conditions have been an irritant in the relationship between the two countries.