Saudi Crown Prince closes world tour in Spain with deal to build warships
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was expected yesterday to sign a €1.8 billion (Dh8.1bn) military deal during the state visit to Madrid, the last stop on a global tour that included talks with the main exporters of military equipment and weapons to the kingdom.
State-owned Navantia was to reportedly sell Saudi Arabia five warships, a Spanish Defence Ministry source told Reuters. Spain’s army will also train Saudi military personnel and contractors will build a naval construction centre in the kingdom, the agency said. Navantia did not comment. The crown prince met King Felipe and Queen Letizia at the Zarzuela Palace near Madrid yesterday, the second day of his state visit. He also spent time with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Defence Minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal.
The countries’ royal families have close ties. King Felipe’s father, Juan Carlos, was a friend of King Fahd, who reigned from 1982 to 2005, and is close to King Salman.
Spain is also a long-term commercial ally of the kingdom. A consortium of Spanish companies built a high-speed railway between Madinah and Makkah.
But activists have criticised past and potentially future sales of military equipment to the kingdom.
Amnesty International, Oxfam, Greenpeace and Spain’s FundiPau have been disparaging about a possible contract to build and sell five navy corvettes. The NGOs urged Spain to stop exporting weapons that could be used by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, where the UN says thousands of civilians have died.
The independent global security database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that the US, Britain and France are the three main exporters of military equipment and weapons to Saudi Arabia. Spain is the fourth.
Madrid exported defence-related equipment worth €728 million to Saudi Arabia between 2015, when air strikes in Yemen began, and mid2017, the most recent date for which information was available, data gathered by the four NGOs showed.
Now at the centre of Saudi Arabia’s power structure, the crown prince has instigated reforms to shed its austere image, and his world tour has widely been viewed as a charm offensive to promote his modernising views.
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince on Tuesday night attended a gala dinner in Paris hosted by President Emmanuel Macron as the young leaders sought to improve co-operation. Saudi Arabia has made it clear that it wants international input into its Vision 2030 programme to make it a success.
The crown prince, 32, also dined on Sunday with Mr Macron, 40, at the Louvre after making his first trip to France as heir to the Saudi throne.
Prince Mohammed wrapped up his whirlwind tour of the US by meeting technology industry leaders, part of a three-week US visit focused on economic opportunities to diversify the oil-rich nation.
The Saudi delegation visited several Silicon Valley corporate campuses, including Apple and Facebook, and data-analysis start-up Palantir Technologies.
The prince also visited Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, where he met founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin as well as chief executive Sundar Pichai.
On his last day in Britain, the crown prince met British Secretary of Defence Gavin Williamson. During his threeday trip, the two countries set a £65 billion (Dh339bn) trade and investment target for the coming years, broadening a trading relationship built on defence and security.
Before the visit, the crown prince said people from both countries would be “much safer if you have a strong relationship with Saudi Arabia”.
Madrid exported defence equipment worth €728m to Saudi Arabia between 2015 and mid-2017