LONDON, 24 February 2005 — It was a cold day in London, but the near zero degree temperature did not chill the second day of Saudi-British conference, where the two nations’ chief diplomats reflected on eight decades of warm relations between their two peoples and charted an equally amicable course for the future.
Addressing the conference, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal announced plans to appoint women to the Foreign Ministry for the first time this year. He pointed out that successful political reforms required “an evolutionary process.”
Prince Saud said the two kingdoms were uniquely positioned to cooperate and play an effective role in dealing with major global issues.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who led his country’s delegation to the conference, said the entire British government greatly valued the UK’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. The conference, entitled “Two Kingdoms: Facing the Challenges Ahead,” aimed at strengthening Saudi-British ties.
In his keynote address, Prince Saud said the role of Saudi women was changing rapidly. “Our educational reforms have created a new generation of highly educated and professionally trained Saudi women who are acquiring their rightful position in Saudi society. I am proud to mention here that this year we shall have women working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the first time,” he said.
Prince Saud refuted allegations that Saudi Arabia was promoting terrorism. “Saudi Arabia is a deeply devout society. Like other societies, we have our share of an extremist minority. Uninformed Western perception, however, has made the exception in our society the rule.”
He said Saudi Arabia was one of the first victims of terrorism. “The threat of terrorism goes beyond our own society and security. One of the terrorists’ most threatening objectives is to drive a wedge between our cultures and societies,” he pointed out. He sought international cooperation to prevent terrorists from establishing safe havens by abusing asylum and migration laws.
Prince Saud emphasized the need to end the injustice being perpetrated against the Palestinian people as it is one of the factors fueling international terrorism.
“For years we have been preaching to unheeding ears in the West, therefore it was music to my ears to hear what we have just heard from his excellency Mr. Straw that this issue should be resolved on a fair and just basis,” he added.
Referring to political reform, the Saudi minister said the Kingdom believed that it must be evolutionary and must fulfill the requirements of its people. “This month, we have commenced the process of electing municipal council members as a step in testing the water. The Saudi minister of Islamic affairs has recently declared that there is nothing in Islam that prohibits women from participating in elections...I would not be surprised if they take part in the next round of elections.”
Prince Saud highlighted the strong relations between Saudi Arabia and Britain. “We share certain positions of influence and we even share certain common values with each other, combined with a healthy diversity that can be turned into complementary action to allow us to play more of an active role in world events.”
Saudi Arabia is the UK’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and the largest market for British goods and services, he said. British investments in the Kingdom account for Riyadh’s second largest foreign investment portfolio, he added.
“The UK enjoys a position of leadership within Europe and is a repository of intimate knowledge of the various cultures that the empire once encompassed and that no other country shares. There have been more explorers and scholars of the Arab and Islamic world from the UK than from any other country outside the Middle East and North Africa,” he said.
Prince Saud said Saudi Arabia, which has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, would continue to play a leading role in stabilizing the international oil market for the benefit of both producers and consumers. “On a per capita basis, Saudi Arabia is the leading foreign aid donor among the community of nations.”
Emphasizing the point that political reforms around the world had gone through an evolutionary process, he said women’s suffrage came about in the UK in the 20th century and in two stages. “The first stage allowed only women above the age of 30 to participate in elections,” he said, quoting a historian. “As for the US, it took a civil war and a generation of Supreme Court decisions for the Bill of Rights to be enforced. The statutes prohibiting interracial marriages in certain states were only completely removed from the books in the 1990s,” he pointed out.
In his address, Straw described the conference as “an opportunity to discuss how we can strengthen the partnership between the UK and Saudi Arabia, and meet together the challenges of a changing world. Saudi Arabia is at the political and economic heart of the Middle East, a region which is central to the UK’s interests and to those of almost every other country in the international community,” he said.
“As the home of Islam’s two holiest sites, Saudi Arabia has enormous significance for the world’s Muslims, including the two million of them who live in Britain — 25,000 in my own parliamentary constituency of Blackburn,” Straw said. “I am proud that the UK was the first mainly Christian country to send an annual official, government-backed delegation to the holy places, assisting British pilgrims undertaking Haj. We are very grateful for all the cooperation which that delegation has received from the Saudi authorities,” he said.
The British minister said the two countries would work together to combat terrorism. “We reject utterly the idea that this despicable violence has any justification whatsoever in the Islamic faith — which we know to be one of peace, tolerance and respect.”
Straw ruled out the clash of civilizations. “Our civilizations are not competing and conflicting, but the product of a collective human effort to which people of many faiths and cultures have contributed. In resisting terrorism, we proclaim our shared attachment to civilization and to the basic human values of respect, dialogue and freedom which the terrorists attack,” he said.
On Iraq he said: “I welcome our shared engagement in support of the Iraqi people as they build a stable, democratic and prosperous country at peace with its neighbors.” He stressed the need to make sure that Iran’s nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
Straw disclosed plans to hold an international meeting in London to help the Palestinians build the institutions which they need to create a future Palestinian state. It will be attended by the members of the Quartet — the US, UN, EU and Russia — plus representatives from other nations and from the World Bank.
“The meeting will be an important chance for us to mobilize greater practical support for the Palestinians as they move toward the goal of a state of their own — a state of Palestine — for which they have striven so long,” he said.
The British minister said democracy was a recent phenomenon in Europe. “We cannot forget that the democracy and prosperity which our own continent enjoys are after all, in many of its nations, very recent phenomena. When I was a young man, none of the eight eastern members of the European Union could be described as a democracy; and three of its southern members were dictatorships,” he explained.
“So we do not come with a model to impose. But we do know that the common desire of all people is for security, prosperity and a say in the decisions which affect their lives. And we know that reform in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world is in our interests too and those of the whole international community. We therefore want to work in partnership with Saudi Arabia and the other countries of the region to support the processes of change which they themselves are shaping, toward the goals which they themselves have set,” he added.
Straw described the Saudi municipal elections as an important step in the growing involvement of the people in political decision-making. “I look forward to the development of this process; and I particularly welcome the government of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to extend it to women,” he said.
