Tag: Saudi Arabia

It looks like the Saudi money overcame what was clearly a better Expo site in Busan. Who is excited to go to Riyadh?:

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo shakes hands with a Saudi official after the final presentation for South Korea’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo at the 173rd general assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions held at the Palais des Congres in Paris before its members their vote for the host city on Nov. 28, 2023. (Yonhap)

 South Korea’s Busan came up short in its bid to host the 2030 World Expo on Tuesday as Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh won a resounding victory over Busan and Italy’s Rome without a runoff vote.

Members of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the body responsible for overseeing the international fair with the potential to generate economic benefits and stimulate job creation, held a ballot in Paris after representatives from the three candidates made final presentations of their proposals.

In the first round of voting, the Saudi capital won 119 votes against Busan’s 29 votes and Rome’s 17 votes. Riyadh’s votes were more than a two-thirds majority needed for a candidate to win without a runoff.

The Saudi delegation celebrated as the results were displayed on an electronic board, concluding the anonymous voting held in Issy-les-Moulineaux, the southwestern suburban area of the French capital.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like MBS is no longer all that radioactive on the world scene anymore as more national leaders are doing business with him to include South Korea:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hold summit talks at the Al Yamamah Palace in Riyadh on Oct. 22, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman agreed to deepen and develop the strategic partnership between the two countries as they held a summit in Riyadh on Sunday, Yoon’s office said.

The two leaders held talks at the Al Yamamah Palace on the second day of Yoon’s four-day state visit to Saudi Arabia, which came as the two sides explore new areas of economic cooperation beyond the traditional sectors of construction and energy.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Good luck trying to help diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy by 2030:

President Yoon Suk-yeol sent a letter to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday pledging close cooperation between the two countries following his visit to South Korea last week, his office said.

Yoon sent the letter in response to Prince Mohammed’s note thanking the president for his hospitality during his visit to Seoul last Thursday.

“The crown prince’s visit became an important milestone in taking the bilateral relationship one step farther,” Yoon wrote in his message, according to deputy presidential spokesperson Lee Jae-myoung.

“We will cooperate closely for the realization of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030,” he added, referring to the crown prince’s road map for moving the country away from an oil-centric economy.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This article claims the Patriot batteries removed from Saudi Arabia are heading to “Northeast Asia” which likely would mean South Korea:

On May 5, a report by imagery experts at Jane’s Intelligence Review and the Center for Strategic and International Studies confirmed in the unclassified space the existence of a near-completed missile assembly and storage facility large enough to accommodate all known North Korean ballistic missiles and launchers. It is an almost braggadocious representation of the missile modernization program North Korea has pursued over the past decade while simultaneously feigning sincerity about curbing its nuclear pursuits.

As such, the removal of Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia should not be a surprise. They will once again be moved to Northeast Asia to guard against the more imminent threat from an unpredictable Kim Jong-un.

The National Interest

You can read more at the link, but the Patriot batteries in Saudi Arabia were deployed there from units based in the U.S. They are just not going to pick up and move to Korea. Their redeployment means they are going back to the United States. Sending them to South Korea would be a large troop build up and after the THAAD fiasco does anyone think the Moon administration is ready for more U.S. troops and missile defenses to be sent to South Korea?

What is likely going on is that returning the Patriots to the U.S. would give U.S. military planners flexibility to deploy them to augment missile defenses in Korea if a crisis was to occur. The batteries being deployed to Saudi Arabia reduces this flexibility. Additionally it is arguable that providing the missile defenses to Saudis also take the onus off of them to buy and equip their own missile defense to defend themselves.

The Saudi Crown Prince received a very warm welcome in South Korea despite the controversy around his alleged ordering of the killing of a journalist:

President Moon Jae-in held a summit Wednesday with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom, and agreed to diversify and expand bilateral cooperation. 

The governments and companies from the two countries signed economic agreements worth over $8 billion.

The summit took place at the Blue House in the afternoon as a part of the crown prince’s two-day trip to Korea. During the summit, the two leaders discussed moving beyond traditional cooperation in energy and infrastructure industries, according to a joint press release. 

Moon expressed support for Saudi’s Vision 2030, an economic and social reform initiative pushed by the crown prince. The two leaders agreed to strengthen a bilateral strategic partnership to promote the program, according to the statement. 

Saudi Vision 2030, announced in April 2016 by the crown prince, is supposed to reduce the country’s dependence on oil while diversifying its economy. Korea is one of Saudi Arabia’s eight strategic partners in the project, along with the United States, Japan and China. 

Saudi Arabia is Korea’s largest supplier of crude oil. It is also Korea’s most important economic partner in the Middle East. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Maybe they thought South Korea is like Saudi Arabia where the woman would likely get blamed for the sexual assault?:

Two Saudi Arabian students have been arrested for sexually assaulting a woman, Seoul police said Wednesday.

The two brothers, 25 and 23, are suspected of assaulting a Korean office worker in her 20s at their home Saturday. They were detained Monday.

The students, studying here in a university exchange program, met the victim through a chat app and drank together in their room, according to the Seoul Seongbuk Police Station.

The woman made an emergency call to police, and investigators found evidence from CCTV footage taken nearby their residence. The men told police they do not remember what happened because they were intoxicated. [Korea Times]