He met Eastern Province Gov. Prince Muhammad bin Fahd on Monday and was a special guest of honor at a Prince Muhammad bin Fahd University graduation ceremony on Sunday.
At a reception thrown in honor of the visiting delegation he made an impassioned plea for building enduring people-to-people connections.
“For me, the commercial connection is important, but it is not as important as the people-to-people connection,” Ellison said. “I would like to see these businesspeople do deals because that will put them in contact with each other, and they will be talking to each other. These businesspeople will be able to go back to our country and talk about the warm hospitality they are experiencing here, and the Saudi people will be able to say good things about the American people. The truth is if you ask an average person in Saudi Arabia or the United States what you think about the other country, people will come up with a lot of ideas that may not be well informed. That is why we need to bring people together, and that is what I am doing.”
The congressman said that the two nations’ diverging viewpoints on the ouster of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak wasn’t a cause for concern.
“It is not required that countries agree on everything in order to have good relationship and friendship. In fact any relationship where you agree on everything means that you are not dealing with two independent actors,” Ellison said. “When there are two independent actors they are going to see the world through their own eyes, so this is not a problem. We have a different perspective. Saudi Arabia is across the water from Iran; it is right here in the heart of the Muslim world. They are going to have a different perspective on events than we do. We in the US are very, very lucky to have a friendly Saudi Arabia to give us a good perspective on what it is like in this neighborhood.”
Ellison said that Saudi concerns are given a lot of weight by American decision-makers.
“Listening to a friend is different than obedience,” he said. “There is no doubt that perspective of Saudi Arabia is very important. And you noticed that when Barack Obama came to Cairo to deliver his famous speech to the Muslim world, what most-important place did he go to before heading there? Right here to Saudi Arabia because this is such a centrally important country.”
The American lawmaker reiterated that the relational capital between US and Saudi businesspeople was as important as the state relations between the two nations.
“My real agenda is to bring people together,” Ellison said. “Governments can talk; people who work in the security field can talk, and they do, but the real relationship is between the people of Saudi Arabia and the people of the United States. I hope these businesspeople will make lasting and long-term friendships while doing business. When these people are back home in the United States and if they hear some generalizations — perhaps some unfair characterization about Saudi Arabia — they can say ‘you know I can’t tell you about everything, but I can tell you about my friends.’ These are the kind of relationships that are very important. Sometimes the United States is not properly understood in this region.”
Just as US intentions may be misunderstood, during a speech at the event the American ambassador noted there are many misunderstandings about Saudi Arabia.
“The media was telling you that there was nothing but unrest here,” Ambassador James B. Smith told the delegation. “Nothing could be further from the truth. This was, is and will be our anchor of stability in the region. It is true that in the last three months this region has been in the eye of a storm. When gales settles down we will see a better region than we saw before. It is an exciting time; it is a busy time, and it’s a time of hope and challenge. As a businessman I learned early on to follow the money, and if you want to it will lead you to Saudi Arabia.”
