RIYADH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah held talks here on Tuesday with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani on major regional and international issues and ways of strengthening relations between the two GCC neighbors.
“The talks focused on new developments on Gulf, Arab, Islamic and international levels,” the Saudi Press Agency said, adding that Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, and Riyadh Gov. Prince Salman attended the talks.
Earlier on arrival at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, the Qatari emir was received by King Abdullah along with a number of princes, senior government officials and diplomats.
Government sources said the visiting emir’s discussions focused on developing relationships between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and identifying new areas of cooperation.
Three days before Sheikh Hamad’s visit, the largest ever business delegation to visit the Kingdom, comprising 150 entrepreneurs from Doha, came to the capital to strengthen bilateral trade. On Sunday, the Qatari delegates visited potential trade and investment facilities in the capital and held talks the following day with Saudi businessmen.
On Tuesday, the first Saudi-Qatari Joint Businessmen Forum was held at the new headquarters of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CSCCI) here.
Prince Sultan met the Qatari trade team, headed by Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al-Thani, chairman of the Qatari chamber, at his Aziziyah Palace on Tuesday. During the audience, Prince Sultan said that the Qatari ruler’s visit would bolster the excellent relations that the two countries enjoy. He also told the visiting delegates that concerted action would be taken to implement the decisions made by the Saudi-Qatari Coordination Council. Abdul Rahman Al-Jeraisy, deputy chairman of CSCCI, accompanied the visiting delegation to the palace.
The Saudi-Qatari Coordination Council held its first meeting in Riyadh in December 2008 to explore prospects of strengthening political, economic, trade, investment, cultural and social cooperation between the GCC neighbors. The meeting was co-chaired by Interior Minister Prince Naif and the Qatari crown prince who said the formation of the coordination council reflected the farsightedness of the two countries’ leadership.
During a speech at the Saudi-Qatari Economic Forum on Monday, Commerce and Industry Minister Abdullah Zainal Alireza said that the two countries could open new areas of cooperation to develop bilateral trade, especially in information technology, the manufacturing of new products and the offering of new services.
Trade between the two countries reached SR6.2 trillion in 2008. During the first half of 2009, some 16 new joint venture projects were initiated at a cost of SR1.6 billion.
Meanwhile, King Abdullah received a telephone call from Sudanese President Omar Bashir and his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby, commending the king’s role in reconciling the two African countries. King Abdullah, who mediated talks between the two countries in Riyadh and Makkah, thanked the two leaders for their appreciation and hoped that peace and stability would prevail between the two neighbors.
