The Sultan of Oman visits Saudi Arabia on his first trip abroad Omango News

The talks are expected to focus on the Yemen war and economic and investment cooperation between Oman and Saudi Arabia.

The Sultan of Oman visited Saudi Arabia on Sunday for his first official trip abroad since taking power last year, and with talks focused on the Yemen war and economic and investment cooperation, Muscat is expected to consolidate finances.

Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, whose country has joined the United Nations-led efforts to achieve a peace initiative in Yemen, paid a two-day visit to the Red Sea city of Neom.

Salman was greeted by Saudi King King — the Saudi-owned media reported that the 85-year-old monarch had his first meeting since the coronavirus pandemic began — and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Sultan recently faced him with his greatest challenge demonstrations in a country burdened with unemployment, as it is carrying out extensive reform and reduction measures.

The Saudi cabinet authorized officials to prepare and sign draft agreements with Oman in areas such as trade, culture, investment promotion and mail and transportation, Bloomberg reported.

Saudi Arabia and Oman will set up a joint commission to oversee several agreements, Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi told Saudi Arabia’s Asharq Alawsat newspaper on Saturday.

He said the opening of a delayed new road linking the two Gulf states will facilitate logistics and other infrastructure projects.

“There has been a lot of work behind trying to build the foundations for something much more meaningful between the Saudis and the Omani,” Ayom Kamel, head of the Eurasia Group’s political risk advisory group in the Middle East and North Africa, told Bloomberg. . “Sultan Haitham is seen in Riyadh moving to Saudi Arabia on Gulf issues.”

He arrives in Oman

Since the fall in oil prices in 2014, Oman’s debt to gross domestic product has fallen from 15 percent to 80 percent in 2015 last year, and Oman’s plans to diversify revenues from oil and its inflated public sector have slowed. progress.

Oman is one of the most economically vulnerable oil producers in the Gulf, but has long played a leading role in efforts to resolve regional conflicts because of its neutral foreign policy.

a bright smile for the future
We see all the good for both countries and the region, God willing.
stability, development and prosperity
optimists#Sultan_Haitham_Visit_Kingdom #Oman_Saudi_Future_Promising pic.twitter.com/KUBx3OqhEf

– Dr. Abdullah bin Ali Al Farsi (@ abdalif2) July 11, 2021

Translation: Smiles for a bright future. Best wishes to both nations and the wider region. Stability, development and prosperity. We are optimistic.

Relations between Oman and Saudi Arabia have long been a shared border. Saudi officials were wary of Oman’s ties to Iran, which Riyadh sees as a regional threat.

Omani officials have practiced careful neutrality in the region – a rivalry between Riyadh and Tehran has been seen. Muscat has also gone unnoticed by the influence of its largest neighbor.

But the death of Oman Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who ruled for fifty years, opened the door to change.

The sultanate bordering Yemen has stepped up diplomatic efforts with the aim of securing a more than six-year ceasefire against Yemen’s Iran-linked Houthi movement and Saudi-led coalition.

Talks between the coalition and the Houthis are based on steps to lift the blockade at Houthi ports and Sanaa airport, in exchange for what the Iranian-aligned group has ordered for a truce talks.

The coalition intervened in March 2015 in Yemen, after the internationally accepted Houthis government withdrew from the capital Sanaa and the country’s northern territories. The war has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis and pushed the country to the brink of starvation.