Claim: Saudi Arabia rejected India’s request for a meeting while in the US in response to India’s “hate campaign” against the Saudi-Pakistan defence pact.
Fact: There are no reports of India recently requesting Saudi Arabia for a meeting in the US. Moreover, while the Indian foreign ministry has expressed hopes that Saudi Arabia will keep in mind mutual interests and sensitivities after signing the defence pact with Pakistan, there are no reports of a “‘hate campaign”’ being led by India.
On 23 September 2025, a user on X (formerly Twitter) posted an image of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif standing next to Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. The post (archived) is captioned, “Saudi Arabia rejected the request of Indian delegation for a meeting in US, due to hate campaign against Pak-Saudi Pact.’
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first conducted a keyword search but failed to find any credible articles or evidence to support the claim that Saudi Arabia rejected a request by an Indian delegation for a meeting in the US, nor did any articles cite that the cause of the rejection was “due to a hate campaign against the Pak-Saudi Pact.”
The viral claim of a “hate campaign” launched by India in response to the Pak-Saudi Pact is also dubious. Immediately after the deal was announced, reports of India’s response displayed a restrained and cautious approach. On 18 September, the day the deal was announced, India Today quoted Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal’s response, writing, “We have seen reports of the signing of a strategic mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The Government was aware that this development, which formalises a long-standing arrangement between the two countries, had been under consideration,”. India Today also noted that the Indian government was not surprised by the pact, as it had been aware that a mutual defence agreement between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had been under development for some time.
According to reports, India has emphasized the deep relationship shared between Saudi Arabia and India in its response and has advised parties to exercise caution. On 19 September, Reuters reported Jaiswal’s emphasis on this relationship, writing, “India and Saudi Arabia have a wide-ranging strategic partnership which has deepened considerably in the last few years,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters during a weekly news briefing, adding, “We expect that this strategic partnership will keep in mind mutual interests and sensitivities,”.
Additionally, CNBC highlighted India’s focus on maintaining a partnership with Saudi Arabia, writing that when asked if India would continue buying Saudi oil in light of the defencse pact, “a senior source familiar with the matter told CNBC, “Of course.””
While the Indian government’s response has been largely restrained, with a focus on maintaining existing relations, some analysts in India have expressed stronger concerns. According to the BBC, former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal called the pact a “grave misstep” by Saudi Arabia and warned that it could have serious implications for India’s national security.
The same BBC article also cited strategist Brahma Chellaney noting on X that “Riyadh knew India would construe the Saudi-Pakistan pact as a direct threat to its security, yet it went ahead.” He argued that binding a “chronically dependent” Pakistan gives Saudi Arabia both manpower and nuclear “insurance” while signaling to India, Washington, and others that it will chart its own path, the article added. These analysts highlighted that the clause stating that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both” is particularly concerning for India, given ongoing tensions with Pakistan, the BBC wrote.
However, it is important to acknowledge that even this BBC article termed the Modi-led government’s response to the pact as “ more circumspect”.
Thus, Soch Fact Check finds the claim that India’s recent request for a meeting in the US was rejected by Saudi Arabia to be false. Moreover, there is no evidence of an Indian hate campaign against the Saudi-Pakistan defence pact.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim on X here and here.
Conclusion: There are no credible reports to suggest that Saudi Arabia recently rejected India’s request for a meeting in the United States, and the suggestion that this was due to a supposed hate campaign by India is inaccurate as the Indian foreign ministry has expressed hopes that Saudi Arabia will keep in mind mutual interests and sensitivities after signing the defence pact with Pakistan.
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