For four years, relations between Germany and Saudi Arabia were considered shattered. Now Chancellor Scholz is picking up the thread of the conversation with a shady partner.
It is an extremely friendly welcome after a deep diplomatic crisis: the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received Chancellor Olaf Scholz with a strong handshake in the Royal Palace of Peace (Al-Salam Palace) in the port city of Jeddah on Saturday. The SPD politician smiled friendly at the de facto ruler of the most powerful country on the Arabian Peninsula.
The visit is delicate. Crown Prince Mohammed is being held responsible by the US secret service for the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul four years ago. The heir to the throne denies being the mastermind. The murder had led to Mohammed’s international isolation and plunged German-Saudi relations into a crisis that lasted for years.
With his visit, the chancellor is setting a sign of normalization. With French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has since resigned, and US President Joe Biden, Germany’s most important allies were already in Saudi Arabia. Scholz wants to follow this up and resume the thread of the conversation, also with a view to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and its consequences. For him, it’s about staying in dialogue with difficult partners so as not to lose them to countries like Russia or China.
Conversation under giant portrait of king
After the greeting, Scholz and Mohammed sat down under a huge portrait of King Salman for an initial conversation. Later, a private meeting and a joint lunch were planned. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced before the trip that Scholz wanted to address the Khashoggi murder during his visit. Biden did the same thing in July. After meeting Mohammed at the same place, the president reported at the time that the crown prince had denied responsibility for the crime. “He basically said he wasn’t personally responsible. I implied that I think he is,” Biden said.
Scholz travels to the United Arab Emirates and then to Qatar on Saturday evening. Like Saudi Arabia, both countries are important energy exporters. Before the trip, it was still unclear which contracts would be concluded for the supply of gas or – in the medium and long term – hydrogen from the region to Germany. The Chancellor’s environment said: “We will bring ambitious proposals to a conclusion.” However, the trip should not become a pure “energy shopping tour”. Scholz is accompanied by eleven top managers. Among others, Airbus, Thyssenkrupp and Siemens Energy are represented in the business delegation.
Human rights organizations are demanding clear words from Scholz
Despite some reforms, the strictly conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been criticized for its human rights situation. The human rights organization Amnesty International demanded clear words from the chancellor to the crown prince before the trip: “Even in view of all the geopolitical and energy policy constraints, the chancellor should not remain silent about the human rights violations in the country during his trip to Saudi Arabia.”
Reporters Without Borders (ROG) asked Scholz to address press freedom in the three target countries. “But if he wants to do business with these governments, he should set one condition: that their rulers stop trampling on the media as a fundamental pillar of the rule of law,” ROG Germany CEO Christian Mihr told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung ” (NOZ).
Joint press conferences by the Chancellor and his interlocutors are not planned for the entire trip. Despite a great deal of effort, it was not possible to convince the interlocutors of this, according to the German side.
The energy industry is not only hoping for short-term gas exports from the Gulf region from the trip. “Germany and Europe will be dependent on importing hydrogen. It is all the more important to conclude international partnerships at an early stage,” said Kerstin Andreae, general manager of the Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries, the “Rheinische Post” (Saturday).
No more arms exports to Saudi Arabia since the change of government
But Saudi Arabia could also send requests to Germany. According to the peace research institute Sipri, the kingdom is one of the five largest arms importers in the world, and Germany is one of the five largest exporters. Under the traffic light government, however, not a single armaments export to the kingdom was approved. This emerges from a response from the Ministry of Economic Affairs to a request from Left-wing MP Sevim Dagdelen, which is available to the German Press Agency.
The reason is an export ban that has been in effect since November 2018 due to Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the Yemen war and the Khashoggi murder. Chancellor Scholz and his government have so far made no use of an exception rule for European joint projects.
However, it is not known whether there were any corresponding applications from the industry at all. The former federal government issued 81 export licenses worth 33.27 million euros in 2020 and 2021. The Saudi government has repeatedly criticized the export ban. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud described it as a “very wrong signal” in February.
Source: Stern
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