The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, took advantage of her visit to Riyadh yesterday, the second stage of her current tour of the Persian Gulf, to invite the Government and Saudi sovereign wealth funds to increase their investments in Spain within the framework of the Recovery Plan after COVID-19.
Yesterday began with a working breakfast, at the residence of the Spanish Embassy in Riyadh, with a representation of more than 90 Spanish companies with a presence in Saudi Arabia, where they are developing projects as important as the AVE between Mecca and Medina. Late the previous day, the minister visited the site of the Riyadh metro, the largest civil engineering project in the world, in which the Spanish company FCC leads one of the three consortiums in charge of its construction.
Later, González Laya met with the Minister of Trade, Majid Al Qasabi. As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled, Saudi Arabia is Spain’s first trade partner in the Middle East, with a total volume of exchanges exceeding 6 billion euros in 2019.
From the economic point of view, the Minister’s most outstanding meetings were with the Minister of Investment, Khaled Al Faleh, and with the governor of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF), Yasir Al Rumayyan, with whom she spoke about the possibilities of increasing Saudi investment in Spain “within the framework of the Recovery Plan and using co-investment strategies“, according to Foreign Affairs. The most important objective of Gonzalez Laya’s current tour of the Persian Gulf, according to diplomatic sources, is to attract the interest of the region’s sovereign wealth funds to finance the technological, industrial and green economy projects envisaged by the Recovery Plan launched by the Government on the basis of the European Recovery Fund.
With regard to bilateral policy, Arancha Gonzalez Laya was received at noon, at the headquarters of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by her counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, with whom she discussed relations with Iran, the prospects of the Arab-Israeli peace process, the situation in the Sahel and the conflicts in Yemen and Libya.
The Minister also congratulated her counterpart for the Saudi presidency of the G20, “in the difficult circumstances of the pandemic”, and for the reconciliation between the partners of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Gonzalez Laya’s visit is one of the first by a European delegation to the region since the agreement ending the diplomatic, economic and commercial blockade imposed in 2017 by the Arab Quartet (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates) on Qatar was signed on January 5. Precisely, the head of diplomacy moved yesterday afternoon to the State of Qatar, where she inaugurated the new headquarters of the Spanish Foreign Ministry in Doha and where she will conclude today her tour of the Gulf.
After the meeting with her counterpart, Gonzalez Laya was received by the Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Al Khateeb, with whom she visited the archaeological site of Turaif, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and located in the city of Diriyah, where one of “the emblematic giga-projects of tourism development in the country” will be developed, according to the Ministry.
