German chancellor holds talks in Cairo, Riyadh
Egypt-Germany, Politics, 10/6/2003

Saudi Arabia's King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Abdullah yesterday discussed with the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder "prospects of cooperation between the two friendly countries," especially in the economic field "and conditions on the Arab and international arenas especially the Palestinian issue and the situation in Iraq," offical news said.

This was during Schroeder's visit to Riyadh which was the first of its kind for a German Chancellor since 20 years.

The Saudi news agency said that King Fahd and Schroeder reviewed "general conditions at the Arab and international levels especially the Palestinian question and the situation in Iraq as well as discussing prospects of cooperation between the two countries in all fields and means strengthening relations.

Schroeder met with the Saudi crown prince Abdullah, and the Saudi news agency said that "the two sides discussed developments on the Arab and international fields, especially the developments of the Palestinian question and the need that the international community conduct serious efforts towards revitalizing efforts in honoring international resolutions from the Israeli side and implementing the Roadmap as well as developments in Iraq."

Schroeder arrived in Riyadh on Sunday evening, leading a large economic delegation in the first official visit to Saudi Arabia which lasted for 24 hours.

A source at the German delegation accompanying Schroeder said that his country views the chancellor's visit to Saudi Arabia as important "because the kingdom is a large economic partner for Germany," noting that the volume of trade exchange between Germany and Saudi Arabia reached 40 billion EUROS in 2002.

Schroeder's visit's to Riyadh comes at the invitation of crown prince Abdullah who visited Germany in June 2001. The last visit paid a German chancellor to Saudi Arabia was held by Hemlut Kohl in 1983.

Diplomatic sources said that Saudi- German relations are excellent especially in the security field, denying any tension in relations because of that Riyadh did not appoint an ambassador in Berlin since ambassador Abbas Faeq Ghazzawi retired more than one year -- after 20 years he had spent as a Saudi ambassador to Germany.

However, Saudi- German relations had witnessed some coolness in recent months as German intelligence monitored the Saudi missions in Germany since Berlin suspected that Riyadh supports terrorist organizations like al-Qaida. Schroeder arrived in Riyadh coming from Cairo, Egypt, where he had opened with President Hosni Mubarak the first private German university abroad in one of the outskirts of Cairo.

Schroeder said that the opening of the university pertains to "strengthening social and economic development for the Egyptian and German people in this area which suffers conflicts and crises, and this is an expression that peace and development are two faces of the same coin." Schroeder is due to leave Saudi Arabia for the United Arab Emirates.

Previous Stories:
  Mubarak and Schroeder to inaugurate the German University in Cairo tomorrow   (10/4/2003)
  Ebeid, Schroeder to discuss means of activating joint cooperation   (10/4/2003)
  German chancellor to visit Egypt   (8/14/2003)

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