JEDDAH: Abdul Aziz Turkistani, a man who studied in Japan for eight years to obtain his master’s and a doctorate in business administration and marketing, is now going back to that country as Saudi ambassador.
“This is the result of my strong relations with Japan during the last 30 years,” Turkistani told Arab News about his new appointment. He thanked Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan for the gesture.
Turkistani, who took oath in front of the king on Tuesday during a ceremony at Al-Yamamah Palace, along with the new ambassadors to Tunisia (Fahd Al-Zaid) and Burkina Faso (Hani Sindi), said he would make greater efforts to take Saudi-Japanese relations to new heights. Turkistani will assume his new position within a few months.
Japan is now the Kingdom’s largest trading partner with the two-way trade amounting to more than $42.2 billion in 2007. There are 28 Japanese projects in the Kingdom with a total investment of $11.8 billion by the end of 2007. Saudi Arabia supplies about 30 percent of Japan’s oil requirements.
A former marketing development executive of Saudi Research and Marketing Group and adviser to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Endowments, Turkistani replaces Faisal Hassan Trad, who has been named the Kingdom's new ambassador to India.
Turkistani, who can speak English and Japanese fluently, was the first Saudi scholarship student to Japan. “This is a challenging opportunity and I will do my best to further strengthen Saudi-Japanese relations in political, educational, cultural, commercial and economic fields,” he said. “Ambassador Trad has done a great job in promoting Saudi-Japanese relations,” he said. Diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Japan were established in 1955.
