A visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the UK has resulted in the signing of a raft of business deals.
The Crown Prince and a delegation of Saudi officials and business leaders held talks with the Prime Minister at Downing Street on Wednesday.
That meeting saw the launch of the UK-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council. A broad understanding was agreed for a £65 billion mutual trade and investment target, which would include direct investment in Britain and new Saudi public procurement from British companies.
This would be spread across sectors including finance, education, health care, renewable energy and defense, Theresa May’s office said.
Britain is also vying to land the stock market listing of state oil firm Saudi Aramco, but no decision emerged during the visit. Some people did study up on Stash reviews to see if it would be worth entering that market themselves, though. If the UK did win the bid to list the oil firm, the market could potentially flourish. It is already doing well but this listing can only prosper. Some stock market investors are already reading the motley fool review, learning more about investing, and when the time is right so that they can maximise profits.
“This is a significant boost for UK prosperity and a clear demonstration of the strong international confidence in our economy as we prepare to leave the European Union,” a spokeswoman from May’s office said after the meeting.
On Wednesday, the first official engagement for the Crown Prince was a visit to Buckingham Palace to see Queen Elizabeth II – a rare honour usually reserved for heads of state.
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After lunch with the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William a dinner party was held at Clarence House in honour of Mohammad bin Salman.
On the second day of the visit, he visited the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace in south London. The Archbishop showed the prince a rare copy of an ancient Qur’an manuscript that was discovered a few years ago at Birmingham University. The Crown Prince extended an official invitation for the Archbishop to visit the Kingdom.
Bin Salman then discussed strategic cooperation with UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson.
During this meeting, the Crown Prince and the Defence Secretary signed two memorandums to improve Saudi defense capabilities and to increase cooperation and partnership in the fields such as knowledge transfer, manufacturing partnership, training, research and technical support.
The Crown Prince’s itinerary in London was largely private, including meetings with bankers, executives and lawmakers, and he did not speak publicly during the trip.
However, his first visit was accompanied by a large propaganda campaign that included adverts promoting the Crown Prince and Saudi Arabia in national newspapers and on billboards. The message was that he is a force for reform.
However, large protests also accompanied his visit. Since he became Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader a few years ago he has launched a devastating war on Yemen, imposed an economic blockade on Qatar and cracked down on his internal rivals.
Kevin Watkins, chief executive of Save the Children, blasted the government over the welcome lavished on the prince.
Speaking in London at the launch of a report on crimes against children in warzones, Watkins said: “It has become acceptable to operate humanitarian blockades which, if not explicitly designed to starve children and harm children, will have that inevitable consequence.
“The fact that we have the head of state of a government that has been operating such a blockade – Saudi Arabia – recently invited to Buckingham Palace and Downing Street while the military … is orchestrating what will potentially become the worst famine in the last 50 years, I think speaks volumes.”
Noting a “growing sense of impunity surrounding crimes against children”, Watkins added: “The fact that you can rape, murder, kidnap, bomb schools, bomb clinics with no consequence, speaks I think to the heart of the deeper challenge.”
