RIYADH: Saudi 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.
According to the SPA, 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.Saudi Crown
According to the Greek foreign ministry, Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, will meet with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
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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, which sparked outrage in the West and tarnished the prince’s image as a reformist pushing to open up Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter.Saudi Crown
France’s President Emanuel Macron also visited Riyadh last year, and US President Joe Biden met with Prince Mohammed during a trip to Saudi Arabia earlier this month as Washington works to reduce tensions with Riyadh.
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Energy prices spiked earlier this year as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Saudi Arabia came under pressure from the US and other European nations to increase oil production.
Ahead of the mid-term elections later this year, the Biden administration is under pressure as a result of rising inflation in the US, which has reached 40-year highs.
However, the largest crude exporter in the world has resisted calls to increase supply, citing its dedication to production schedules established by the OPEC+ exporting group that it co-chairs with Russia.
The kingdom had done what it could for the oil market, according to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who made this statement in May.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the newly elected leader of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, was welcomed to Paris by French President Emmanuel Macron last week.
Officials revealed a deal between the state oil company of the UAE, ADNOC, and French energy giant Total Energies during that trip “for cooperation in the area of energy supplies.”
