Kingdom to sign fleet support deal with Boeing

Saudi Arabia will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with US aircraft Boeing Co to provide support and training to the kingdom’s fleet on an upcoming visit to Seattle, the chairman of the state-owned military industrial company said on Tuesday.

Part of an effort to localise 50 per cent of its military industry by 2030, Ahmad Al Khateeb of Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) said Saudi Arabia is talking with major US companies about their presence in the kingdom.

“We have been in dialogue with them to expand their business in Saudi Arabia. We will sign an MoU with Boeing in our visit to Seattle,” Khateeb told Reuters on the sidelines of the 2018 Saudi US-CEO Forum in New York.

“Hopefully we will be announcing other MoUs with other big American companies,” said Khateeb, who is also chairman of the General Entertainment Authority.

New partnerships

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is leading a whistle-stop visit to the United States and on Friday is scheduled to travel to the US West Coast. At the forum, Saudi Arabia’s US embassy said the kingdom had signed 36 memorandums of understanding in new business partnerships.

The MoUs included a partnership between Alphabet Inc’s Google and oil giant Saudi Aramco for national cloud services, and a cooperation agreement between Aramco and Raytheon for national cyber security services.

Aramco has been the victim of a high-profile cyber attack in the past, with former US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta describing the 2012 so-called Shamoon attack as perhaps the most destructive cyber attack on a private business.