EU wants comprehensive ties with Saudi Arabia
On May 9, 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman set out his idea for a new form of political cooperation in Europe, one which would make war between Europe’s nations impossible. Since then, together, we have built a continent promoting peace and sharing prosperity and human development.
Choosing cooperation over confrontation, Europeans have built, in these 69
years, the most successful peace project in history. The EU has also adapted
and taken on new challenges. The EU is not something distant; our countries are
not bound by just treaties. The EU is what we have made of it and provides
European people a cross-fertilization of cultures, ideas and policies.
In February, we reached a turning point in cooperation
between the EU and our Arab neighbors with the first ever EU-Arab League summit
in Sharm El-Sheikh, in which King Salman played a central role. Consensus was
reached on important regional issues, such as the Middle East peace process,
but also on building further links between our peoples.
The EU considers the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be an
important strategic partner and our ambition is to have comprehensive and
multidimensional cooperation covering political dialogue, economy and trade,
sectorial and regional issues, and counterterrorism and human rights.
Nevertheless, relations do not revolve only around “dialogue” — we intend to
widen the scope of our cooperation and build on concrete programs and a common
agenda.
EU cooperation will focus on Vision 2030. Energy, tourism,
agriculture, transport, the space industry and others are all key areas in
which we can broaden our engagement and offer the unique assets and scale of
the European Single Market and provide European expertise and know-how for this
important transformational agenda.
As we look forward to the G-20 summit being held in Saudi
Arabia next year, the EU, in close cooperation with its member states, has
unique potential and added value to support Saudi efforts in issues such as
development cooperation, trade, and climate change action.
It is not exclusively government-to-government engagement;
this is matched by people-to-people exchanges, business-to-business dialogue,
educational and parliamentary exchanges, and cultural diplomacy, such as the
recent “Europe Month.”
While we are expanding bilateral engagement, EU cooperation
with the Kingdom also remains anchored around the Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC), with an especially close partnership on the economic agenda and how we
can mutually address our employment, trade and fiscal challenges.
The EU is increasing its footprint in the Gulf with the
upcoming opening of an EU delegation to Kuwait, which will enable us to further
deepen our engagement with both Saudi Arabia and the other GCC countries.
We are two weeks from important European elections on May
23-26, which will chart a future course for the European people and
institutions, and their relations with the Kingdom will be part of this new
chapter.