April 28, 2006

THE AMBASSADOR OF THE CUSTODIAN OF THE TWO HOLY MOSQUES TO THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IRELAND PRINCE MOHAMMED IBN NAWAF IBN ABDUL AZIZ SPEAKS ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF SAUDI-BRITISH RELATIONS. THE PRINCE, AMBASSADOR: SAUDI-BRITISH RELATIONS ARE HISTORICAL AND STRONG THEY ARE CONSTANTLY DEVELOPING. OUR EMBASSY IN LONDON RUNS MEDIA CAMPAIGNS IN REPLY TO BIASED MEDIA. Prince Mohammed Ibn Nawaf Ibn Abdul Aziz, Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to the United Kingdom and Ireland has stressed the depth of Saudi British relations since the historical meeting between the founder of the Kingdom King Abdul Aziz God bless his soul and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1945. He also confirmed that relations between the two countries are constantly developing. In a special interview, the Prince added that the aim of the conference held between the two Kingdoms whose second meeting took place in Riyadh, is to form joint bilateral committees to discuss ways of developing relations in all fields especially the economic field.. The Prince said in his interview with "Al-Riyadh" newspaper that there are follow up committees with regards to the recommendations of the first conference and these recommendations have been activated especially in the economical and educational fields. The Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to the United Kingdom and Ireland noted that the Embassy renders great attention to the media and carries out media campaigns to eliminate the misunderstanding and to reply to biased media. He said media delegations visit the Kingdom to see the comprehensive reforms program under the supervision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Following is the translation of the interview: * Before we talk about the conference's second meeting "Two Kingdoms" can Your Highness briefly describe Saudi British relations? - Relations between Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom are solid and historical. They have been established since the historical meeting held in February 1945 between the founder of the Kingdom King Abdul Aziz God bless his soul and Winston Churchill. The Founder of the Kingdom was perceptive, he worked to strengthen relations between the Kingdom and the United Kingdom because of the role the UK was playing on the international arena. Since then and up to date, these bilateral relations have been developing under the leadership of those who followed the founder of the Kingdom and British Prime Ministers and governments. This conference is just another clear proof of those strong relations between the two countries and an opportunity for officials in both countries to exchange views in different areas concerning bilateral relations including the enhancement of cultural and trade exchange between the two countries and the exchange of views with regards to regional and international relations and combating terrorism. * Your Highness, what about the conference, where has the idea stemmed from and what are its aims? - The idea is that of His Royal Highness Prince Turki Al-Faisal when he was Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to the United Kingdom. It aimed at setting up joint committees to discuss the development of bilateral relations in all fields especially the economic field. It then progressed to become an annual conference held between the two countries under the chairmanship of His Highness the Foreign Minister and HE the British Foreign Minister Jack Straw and groups from both countries specialized in various areas of cooperation. The conference is held once a year. Last year it was held in the United Kingdom and this year in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. * Before we speak about the second meeting of the conference, can Your Highness give us a brief about the conference and its launch, did the first meeting which took place in the UK issue recommendations? and have these recommendations led to tangible results? - Naturally the first meeting held in February 2005 has issued recommendations, briefly they are as follows: - Holding the conference on an annual basis as we can see now. - Setting up follow-up committees, in addition to the formation of a joint Saudi-British technical committee to define fields of cooperation between the two countries and especially the field of preparing the youth for the job market and the development and training for the work force. - Exchanging expertise in the field of privatization and encouraging small commercial projects. The participation of the Saudi Private Sector in the Economic Balance Program and working towards increasing the level of cooperation between the European Commission and the GCC member states with Britain's support. Concerning the activation of these recommendations and their implementation, we are working towards that and there are follow-up committees and some of the recommendations have in fact been activated especially in the education and economic fields. In this context I wish to point out that we, at the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques' Embassy in London, have set up a committee to follow-up with the British side what has been implemented from last year's recommendations and sent reports to officials in the Kingdom concerning this issue. Of course the committee will accord great importance to the recommendations of the second meeting and it will follow-up their implementation. * Your Highness let us now talk about the second meeting of the conference held in Riyadh, we want to learn about the activities of the meeting? - His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister and the Right Honourable British Foreign Minister Jack Straw have opened the conference. Then the conference's three workshops were launched. The first workshop discussed the joint economic partnership between the two countries and was chaired by HE the Chairman of the Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industries and Baroness Symons from the British side. The second workshop discussed the joint partnership to develop human resources and was chaired from the Saudi side by the HE the Minister of Higher Education and Professor Jordon Campbell, Assistant Chairman of the education body from the British side, while the third workshop was chaired from the Saudi side by HE the Minister of Culture and Information and from the British side by Peter Gooderham, Director of MENA at the British Foreign Office. Naturally the three workshops were attended by a large number of officials from both countries specialized in issues studied by the workshops that discuss ways of cooperation in the mentioned areas, exchange of expertise and issues of recommendations and the mechanism of implementing these recommendations. I wish to point out that a large number of private sector officials in both countries took part in these workshops. In addition to all that there are fields visits organized for members of the British delegation which by the way is comprised of politicians, MPs, economists, deans of universities, professors, bankers, businessmen, and representatives of various institutions. Several visits have been organized for the delegation, these include visits to the Shoura Council, different ministries, the King Abdul Aziz Centre for National Dialogue, the King Abdul Aziz Historical Centre, the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, Prince Sultan Humanitarian city and other places. I wish to point out that there is also a media delegation representing TV channels and radio stations and the British press, which has covered the event and transmitted it to the British people. The British delegation was invited by the Embassy of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and a complete program has been prepared for it. The program includes meetings with a large number of high-ranking Saudi officials in several cities, visits to several utilities, governmental, educational, commercial and media organizations, including your organization, in order to acquaint them with the comprehensive progress of the Kingdom, and for them to transmit a good image of the comprehensive reforms program and the development the Kingdom is witnessing in all areas. No doubt, it is a good opportunity to meet with their colleagues from the Saudi media, exchange views and cooperate with them. This is a vital and very important matter in light of the wrong image represented in the western media about the realities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their claim of being misrepresented in our media. This visit, God Willing, is a good opportunity for members of the Saudi media to build new relations with their British colleagues. * Your Highness pointed out to a media delegation and to a program of visits for this delegation, can Your Highness tell us about the image of the Kingdom in the British press and how the embassy deals with the media, and if media activities and media campaigns are being run? - Without any doubts, after the 9/11 attacks, the image of the Kingdom has been damaged in the western media in general and in the British and American media in particular, but the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has moved immediately in order to reflect the true image of the Kingdom and demonstrate the truth about the Kingdom as the country of Islam and peace and that it has suffered from terrorism well before 9/11. The western media did not accord any importance to this issue until the terrorists attacked the West. Of course there is fair media and others who have their own agenda and on that basis they attack the Kingdom and the Arab world and Islam in general. I wish to point out that the Saudi Embassy in the United Kingdom follows the policy set up by the State, which has opened its doors to western media to acquaint them closely with the truth about the Kingdom, its people, its religious and cultural advantages. We have nothing to hide or fear at all, and the issue depends on the degree of objectiveness and credibility of the western media. From this point comes the visit of the media delegation so that they can see with their own eyes the Kingdom and get acquainted with the comprehensive program of reforms supervised by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques God bless him. By the way, this is not the first or the last time for a media delegation to visit the Kingdom, as by the time a media delegation leaves the country always another one arrives. We hope to build bridges of cooperation between us and especially between you and your colleagues in the media, because this will bring views closer, increase understanding and break patterned and wrong images in each side and especially in the western media. I wish to stress that the embassy gives great importance to the media and also it implements a media campaign that aims at getting rid of the misunderstandings and replying to biased media and deal with transparency and credibility with objective and equable media. There is still a lot that we have to do to confront what damages the Kingdom and Islam. * Your Highness has pointed out that there is a group of British education officials with the British delegation and Your Highness noted that one of the workshops will discuss cultural and education cooperation between the two countries. How does Your Highness see the educational cooperation and exchange and cultural cooperation between the two countries? Is there a large demand from Saudi students on British universities? - Educational cooperation is strong between the two countries, we are always looking at developing it. As you mentioned, one of the workshops focuses on joint cooperation to develop human resources through cultural exchange, student missions and joint investment in education, training and vocational training. There are many programs between Saudi educational areas and their British counterparts in addition to cultural projects adopted by the Kingdom in Britain with the aim of enhancing cultural cooperation between the two countries and serving the Muslim community in Britain while acquainting the British with the radiant and moderate Islam. This was reflected two weeks ago when we delivered a donation to the amount of £ one million from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to buy a building and convert it to a centre for Muslim heritage in Manchester. It is obvious that one of the aims of good work is to build bridges of cooperation and understanding between civilizations at a time we are in dire need of such a centre which, God willing, will be a complete centre. Scientific cooperation between the two countries is also on track. As you know, we have 3000 Saudi either undergraduates or postgraduates who are reading various subjects in different British universities. In addition to that, around 2000 students are studying at their own expenses and efforts are being made to include them in the mission. Around 250 military students and 300 students from Aramco are studying in the UK, in addition to an unknown number of between 1000 and 2000 students who have not registered themselves at the cultural office or the embassy. Through your newspaper, I call on them to register with either the Embassy or the cultural office so that we can offer them our services, follow up their situation, and help them whenever necessary. Registering with the embassy is very beneficial and it is in the interest of the student in the first place as it is in the interest of Saudi visitors and tourists. I also wish to clarify that the embassy and its offices are dedicated to the service of our brothers Saudi students and visitors who come either to work or for treatment or tourism. This is one of our core duties that is being implemented according to the directives of the leadership who renders great attention to the citizens anywhere in the world. * Can your Highness talk about trade exchange between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom? - Trade exchange between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom is deep rooted. They have witnessed tangible progress in their flow and in the volume of exchange. These relations have been enhanced with the establishment of the Saudi-British Committee for Economic and Technical Cooperation in 1983. This Committee has worked for the development of trade exchange and technical cooperation between the two countries until 2002 when the Saudi- British Joint Business Council was established. The council includes businessmen from both countries and plays an active role to promote and increase the volume of trade exchange between both countries. It also holds regular sessions in both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom to discuss ways of developing trade between the two countries and how to overcome the obstacles if any and increasing trade exchange. * What is the level of trade exchange between the two countries? - The total volume of trade exchange between the two countries is ruled by the average economic activities in both countries and this can change from year to year. For example trade exchange between the two countries reached $ 8,7 billion in 1997, then it witnessed some swings between 1997 and 2001 then in 2004 it leaped. Total British exports to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia amount to $ 59,6162 million while the Saudi exports to Britain reached $ 37,8242 million and the surplus of $ 846 million is in Britain's advantage. Statistics of the first and second quarters of 2005 point to progress in trade exchange as it reached around $ 3 billion which shows that there will be an increase when the final statistics of the whole year are announced. * To which side is the balance of trade inclined? At the moment statistics show that they are in the United Kingdom's favour, i.e the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia imports from the UK more than it exports to it, but this does not bother us if we take into consideration the successive leaps that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia achieves in various development areas. Thus our need for importing becomes greater and trade exchange will be balanced or will be in the advantage of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia when many development projects in the Kingdom are achieved, production starts and will be followed by exports. * Is there any forthcoming idea about inviting British companies to invest in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and what are the efforts exerted by the Embassy to attract British investors to the Kingdom and the facilities offered to them? - Yes the embassy participates and encourages activities that introduce and promote investment opportunities to British investors with the aim of attracting them to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The last activity was held in both Edinburgh and Manchester with the attendance of the Ambassadors of the two countries, the Secretary General of the International Trade Committee in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a large number of British companies and institutions. Of course, we give particular importance to this issue. Earlier I mentioned that the Joint Saudi-British Business Council exerts many efforts in order to advance economic relations between the two countries. No doubt that the institutions of the Saudi private sector through this joint council and the individual efforts of businessmen and women assess the investment opportunities available in both countries. As for the embassy, it takes an active part in the meeting of the council and the businesswomen forum which was held in London in 2005, in addition to the continuous coordination between the embassy and the General Investment Organization. I wish to point out that one of the workshops at the meeting held in Riyadh focuses on this side and the conference aims at enhancing investments between the two countries. Also the Kingdom's membership in the WTO means that there will be more and quicker opportunities for trade exchange between the two countries. I also wish to point out that the embassy provides all the facilities to companies that wish to invest in the Kingdom, This is achieved through providing the required information, facilitating travel procedures or offering other supporting services. In this context I wish to note with all gratitude the efforts and cooperation of the British Ambassador and members of his embassy. * Are there Saudi investors in the United Kingdom? - Yes and according to the statistics available there are around 100 businesses that work fully or partly with Saudi capital and cover various commercial, industrial and media areas as well as transport and travellers services. * The Saudi media has published that Your Highness has attended an exhibition for dates in Birmingham, can Your Highness brief us on the exhibition? Who was behind it? Its achievements and whether it will be held again for this product or other products? - With regards to Birmingham, a famous food and drink exhibition is held every two years. Saudi companies took part in it, in March 2006 exhibiting different kinds of dates, and they have also exhibited other food products. The aim of participating in this exhibition is to encourage food exports to Britain including Saudi dates. There is a trend for encouraging Saudi companies to participate in this exhibition and also taking part in the coming international food exhibition to be held God willing in March 2007. The Kingdom has also participated in the Royal Agriculture Exhibition in Britain in 2004 with different agricultural products. * Your Highness what is the volume of British investments in the Kingdom and vice versa? - The volume of British investments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is more than $ 5,3 billion distributed between a number of industrial and services projects. But there are no statistics available on the volume of Saudi investments in Britain and it is thought that they are in large amounts. * How does Your Highness see the situation in Iraq? - The Kingdom's position towards what happens in Iraq is clear and open and has been declared several times. The Kingdom wants a unified, stable and secured Iraq. The Kingdom was one of the first countries, which worked and is still working to achieve stability in Iraq. According to the Iraqis themselves our borders with Iraq are amongst the most secured. The Kingdom has called many times for the necessity to speed up the process of forming a government that must be a national unity government representing all sections and no doubt that if the government represents all sections of the Iraqi society this would be an ideal solution for the current crisis in Iraq. The Kingdom has also many times condemned violence and the terrorist attacks taking place in Iraq. At the same time, the Kingdom has condemned foreign interference in Iraq's domestic affairs, which only leads to more differences amongst the Iraqi people. Despite this crisis we are sure that the Iraqi people with all their sections will be the first to realize the dangers of the current situation and will endeavour to reach what would realize security and stability in Iraq and build a unified Iraq that is part and parcel of the Arab and Muslim nation. * Your Highness, what is the position of the Kingdom towards the stand of the European Union including the United Kingdom towards stopping the aid it offers to the Palestinians and their refusal to deal with Hamas? Will the Kingdom support Hamas and will it continue to provide support to the Palestinian people? - Through the statements of Saudi officials the position of the Kingdom towards this issue is clear and frank; the last of these statements is that of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in his interview with Japanese TV during his visit to Japan. He stressed the stable and continuous position of the Kingdom and its support to the Palestinian people. This policy has been the policy of the Kingdom since the era of the founder King Abdul Aziz God bless his soul and still is today. This will continue until the Palestinian people regain their full rights. We will continue to stand by our brethren in Palestine until they get all their legitimate rights. Concerning the European Union, we hope that it will realize the fact that the Palestinian people chose Hamas through the elections process. Thus, everyone including the EU has to honour the will of the Palestinian people and continue to provide human support to the Palestinian Authority so that matters do not become worse for the people under siege - those who want to lead an honourable and stable life as others do. The Kingdom pays its full share in the fund that has been established by a recommendation of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz as you know. * What about what is called the Saudi opposition in London and press reports that there is a deal of some sort, it could be aircrafts in return for handing over those people to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? - His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al-Faisal the Foreign Minister has earlier - a short time ago noted that there are bilateral committees which review the issue of those people. As it is known, these people support violence and terrorism, and one of them is on the United Nations list of people who support terrorism, and previously, his bank accounts were frozen. Britain has recently issued a number of laws aiming at combating terrorism and terrorists, and criminalizing support of violence and terrorism or the use of any mean to incite terrorism. Everybody knows that those people are involved in acts of violence and terrorism and no doubt they are the losers. They are of no importance and what has been mentioned concerning deals is totally untrue. * Your Highness what about cooperation between the two Kingdoms in the fight against terrorism? - With regards to terrorism both our countries were subjected to terrorist attacks that targeted our security and that of our citizens. As you know the last terrorist attempt from this deviant group is what they have tried to do in Abqaiq. Thank God our courageous brothers from the security forces stopped them. The last terrorist attack against Britain was in July last year. Both of us exert great efforts to fight this dangerous parasite on both the domestic and international levels. There is close co-operation between the two kingdoms in this field and there was an active contribution from Britain in the International Conference for Counter-Terrorism, which was held in Riyadh and ended with positive recommendations that aimed to consolidate the international cooperation in the fight against terrorism including the adoption of the Kingdom's proposal to establish an international centre for counter-terrorism and we hope that the British government will help to realize that.