No Kiwi plans for Saudi event
New Zealand could put its business interests with Saudi Arabia at risk if it strongly speaks out soon against the suspected murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Turkey, an Otago academic believes.
Otago University professor Bill Harris, who is an expert in Middle Eastern affairs, said he imagined the New Zealand Government would be seeking ‘‘safety in numbers’’ in its reaction to the suspected killing.
The Riyahd stock market slid 7 per cent on Sunday as investors weighed up the risk of Saudi Arabia becoming more of a pariah. But the Saudi Government has warned it will retaliate against any measures taken against it and has threatened to send the price of oil spiralling.
British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has halted talks over a slated US$1 billion (NZ$1.5b) Saudi investment in Virgin’s space firms. But the international response to the apparent killing of the Washington Post columnist has so far largely centred on a partial boycott of Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative conference which is due to be held in Riyadh next week and which has become a litmus test for the strength of feeling over Khashoggi’s suspected killing.
Media sponsors and business leaders including Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi have been abandoning the conference, also dubbed ‘‘Davos in the Desert’’, in droves.
The BBC has reported that US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin and British international trade secretary Liam Fox might also not attend.
But the New Zealand Government appears to have been spared a decision as no New Zealand officials were planning to attend the conference.
NZ Trade and Enterprise spokesman Andrew Holden said none of its representatives, including in its regional office in Dubai were attending, ‘‘nor intended to’’.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade also said that as far as it was aware, no government officials had planned to go to the event.
Saudi Arabia is New Zealand’s 17th largest trade partner, taking $524 million of exports in 2016, according to NZTE.
Exports to Saudi Arabia are mostly primary products such as dairy products, sheep meat and wood, but New Zealand has also been looking into ways it could help the Saudi Government with educational reforms, including ‘‘curriculum development, technical vocation and training’’, according to NZTE.
Harris said the fact New Zealand had an embassy in Riyadh was probably down to the two country’s ‘‘reasonably strong’’ trade ties. ‘‘I assume it pays off because that seems to be our major calculation with practically everything.’’
Harris said there was no doubt Saudi Arabia had killed Khashoggi, describing that as ‘‘outrageous’’, but forecast the Government would want to wait a little longer to be ‘‘absolute’’ on what had happened.
Saudi Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman ‘‘freaked out’’ in August at Canada’s criticism of its crackdown on female human rights activists, showing New Zealand would be running risks if it issued any snubs, he said.
But the ‘‘nice scenario’’ from New Zealand’s perspective was that it could ‘‘voice all its morals and ethics reasonably safely’’ as part of the crowd, Harris said.