Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, Minister of Defense and head of the influential Council of Economic and Development Affairs, HRH Mohammed bin Salman, plans to visit China August 29-31 and Japan August 31-September 3.
Prince Mohammed will then attend the Group of 20 Summit September 4-5 to be held in Hangzhou, China where he will be joined by Chinese President Xi Jinpiang and Indonesian President Joko Widodo along with other leaders.
As with Prince Mohammed’s extended June 2016 visit to Washington, DC, Los Angeles and New York City, he plans to promote Saudi Arabia’s comprehensive economic reform initiative Vision 2030.
Prince Mohammed also visited France in July 2016 for extended meetings with President Hollande and top economic and defense officials, among others.
Japan, which imports about 1.2 million barrels a day, and China, about 1 million barrels a day, are not only major energy customers of Saudi Arabia but also partners on a variety of energy-related joint ventures and partnerships. Saudi Aramco continues to seek investment in Asian refineries in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam as well as China.
In addition, there is tremendous interest in the proposed IPO of some percentage of Saudi Aramco, a key component of the the Vision 2030 plan.
Neil Beveridge, a Hong Kong-based analyst noted that, “The relationship with Asia is going to be absolutely critical over the coming years as demand increasingly shifts in this direction. Getting the Chinese to invest either in Aramco directly through the oil majors, or potentially listing in Asia, would be another way of deepening ties.”
According to Arab News reporting a number of experts agree that the Deputy Crown Prince’s visits to the U.S. and France were very productive and that the upcoming interactions with China, Japan and other Asian leaders is important to helping achieve Saudi Arabia’s long-term economic goals.
Courtesy of Arab News
