NAJIB GETS WIDE COVERAGE IN S. ARABIA
PM prominently featured in ‘Al Jazirah’
ADRIAN LAI
KUALA LUMPUR adrianlai@nst.com.my
PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was accorded extensive and prominent coverage in the Saudi Arabian media during his three-day working visit to the kingdom, which ended on Monday.
Najib, who was in Saudi Arabia for the Arab-Islamic-American Summit last week, was prominently featured in Al Jazirah ,a daily Arabic newspaper published there.
The newspaper ran a threepage report on the historic summit. One page was dedicated to the prime minister, who was shown shaking hands and greeting Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Najib was also pictured alongside his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, having a cordial chat with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and other state officials.
Also featured in the report were United States President Donald Trump, who made his first visit overseas since he was elected to the Oval Office, US First Lady Melania Trump and Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.
Najib, who ended his third working visit abroad in just over three weeks, was among five out of more than 50 world leaders to address the summit.
The other four were Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia and Kuwait.
Malaysia was also chosen by the Saudi government to join nine other countries in the development and operation of the Global Centre For Combating Extreme Ideology in Saudi Arabia.
Najib had said the visit would place Malaysia at the forefront of global efforts to combat violent extremism and terrorism.
Besides the summit, the Riyadh sojourn also saw Najib hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, and Fayez al-Sarraj from Libya. He had also attended the inauguration of the Saudi-mooted Global Centre for Combating Extreme Ideology.
Both Malaysia and Saudi Arabia have enjoyed strong ties for decades, which were further cemented by King Salman’s historic four-day visit to Malaysia in March.
Among others, the king oversaw the signing of deals worth US$65 billion (RM288 billion), besides a string of memoranda of understanding to strengthen cooperation in trade and defence.