Saudi CP’s UK visit to secure key deals
LONDON — Saudi Arabia expects to sign agreements with Britain covering a range of issues during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to London this week, Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said.
Britain’s planned exit from the European Union did not reduce its attractiveness as an investment destination, the minister told reporters, and he said he expected the crown prince’s visit to take bilateral relations to a higher level.
“Our relationship is so strong that the talks will be broad and wide ranging. There will be agreements and memorandums of understanding signed in a number of areas involving a broad range of issues,” he said during a media briefing at the Saudi embassy.
Jubeir provided no further details on the agreements nor on the precise agenda for the crown prince’s visit. He declined to comment on any progress in plans to list giant oil firm Saudi Aramco and whether that might happen in London or New York.
Asked whether Britain’s departure from the EU, scheduled for March 2019, would affect Riyadh’s view of how attractive Britain is as an investment destination, Jubeir said: “We don’t think so. We think that Britain is one of the great powers.
“British ingenuity and British technology and British know-how is not going to change whether you’re part of the EU or not part of the EU.”
The Saudi Foreign Minister defended his country’s “just” war in
Our relationship is so strong that the talks will be broad and wide ranging. There will be agreements and memorandums of understanding signed in a number of areas involving a broad range of issues Adel Al Jubeir, Saudi Foreign Minister
Yemen. “They criticise us for a war in Yemen that we did not want, that was imposed on us,” Jubeir told BBC Radio 4.
“They criticise us for a war in Yemen that is a just war, that is supported by international law,” he added.
Earlier on Monday, , the Saudi crown prince met Coptic Pope Tawadros II at Cairo’s largest Coptic cathedral in what state media said was an unprecedented visit by an official from the kingdom.
The visit was part of a three-day stay in Egypt for Prince Mohammed, his first public trip abroad since he became heir apparent last year. Cairo and Riyadh have strengthened ties in recent years and Egypt has received billions of dollars in aid from its Gulf ally. The two countries on Sunday set up a $10 billion joint fund to develop a planned mega-city. Prince Mohammed and Pope Tawadros walked together through St Mark’s Cathedral, footage on Saudi TV channel Al Arabiya showed.