The King met this Monday at the Zarzuela Palace with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud, on the occasion of his official visit to Spain, the most important of a leader of this country of Persian Gulf since the stay in Madrid of the crown prince, Mohamed bin Salman, in April 2018. The head of Saudi diplomacy has also held a meeting with his Spanish counterpart, Minister José Manuel Albares, at the Foreign Office.
Felipe VI has received Bin Farhan in the Audience Hall, where they have greeted each other with a handshake before posing before the graphic media. Spain and Saudi Arabia maintain good diplomatic relations, marked by traditional sympathy and friendship between the two royal houses. Saudi Arabia is also Spain's leading trading partner in the Middle East, with a total volume of exchanges of more than 6,000 million euros in 2019, according to Foreign Affairs. And it is one of its main suppliers of oil.
After the greeting, they went to the King's office to hold a talk on the state of bilateral relations and global issues of common interest. On behalf of the Spanish Government, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Global Affairs, Ángeles Moreno; on the Saudi side, the director of the Minister's Cabinet, and the respective ambassadors have also attended.
The presence of the head of Saudi diplomacy in Madrid aims to strengthen the bilateral institutional link and, above all, to promote business and economic relations, in particular investment opportunities.
The last visit of a Spanish minister to Riyadh took place last October, on the occasion of the FII investment forum, promoted every year by Prince Mohamed Bin Salmán, de facto ruler of the country. In February 2021, it was the then Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, who traveled to Riyadh, also with an economic agenda. There he met with the Investment Minister, Khaled Al Faleh, and with the governor of the Saudi sovereign fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF), Yasir Al Rumayyan, with whom he discussed the possibilities of increasing Saudi investment in Spain within the framework of the Plan of Recovery and using co-investment strategies. The minister also met with the Minister of Commerce, Majid Al Qasabi.
During Mohamed bin Salman's visit to Spain in April 2018, six agreements were signed to strengthen cooperation in defense, air transport, culture, work and social development, and scientific and technological cooperation. The other important milestone in diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Spain was the trip of King Felipe VI to Riyadh in January 2017, invited by King Salman.
