- Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman leaves Saudi Arabia for Greece and France.
- It is his first official visit to a European Union member state.
- Prince will discuss bilateral ties and matters of mutual interest, state news agency SPA says. He will meet with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
RIYADH: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman left Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for Greece and France, according to state news agency SPA, his first visit to a European Union member state.
Prince Mohammed, whose last official visit outside the Middle East was to Japan for the G20 summit in 2019, will discuss bilateral ties and matters of mutual interest, according to the SPA.
According to the Greek foreign ministry, Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, will meet with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
According to a Greek diplomatic source, bilateral agreements in energy, military cooperation, and an undersea data cable will be signed.
Mitsotakis was among the Western leaders who visited Riyadh, causing outrage in the West and tainting the prince’s image as a reformist pushing to open up Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter.
France’s President Emanuel Macron also visited Riyadh last year, and US President Joe Biden met with Prince Mohammed earlier this month during a trip to Saudi Arabia as Washington works to reduce tensions with Riyadh.
Concentrating on oil:
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a spike in energy prices earlier this year, the US and European powers pressed Saudi Arabia to pump more oil.
Inflation in the United States has reached 40-year highs, putting pressure on the Biden administration ahead of midterm elections later this year.
However, the world’s largest crude exporter has resisted calls to increase supply, citing its commitment to production schedules set by the OPEC+ exporting bloc it co-chairs with Russia.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan stated in May that the kingdom had done everything possible to help the oil market.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the new president of the energy-rich United Arab Emirates, was received in Paris last week by French President Emmanuel Macron.
During that trip, officials announced a deal between Total Energies of France and ADNOC of the UAE “for cooperation in the area of energy supplies.”
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