Saudi officials head to South Africa to buy arms
Saudi Arabia, Military, 9/19/1997

The Second Deputy of the Saudi Prime Minister and Minster of Defense and Civil Aviation, Prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz will pay an official visit to South Africa next Tuesday and will stay for a week, responding to an invitation from President Nelson Mandella. During this visit Prince Abdel Aziz will meet with Mandela, the Vice President and the Minster of Defense Joe Morris.

Diplomatic sources in South Africa mentioned that Prince Abdel Aziz's talks will focus on boosting military cooperation between the two countries and on an arms deal in particular.

Sources stated that Saudi Arabia and South Africa are about to sign an arms deal through which Riyadh will buy guns and anti-fighter missiles worth $1.6 million. If this deal is finalized, it will be the biggest arms deal sold by an African country and will be the biggest deal in the history of South Africa. It will also give a push to the armament industry in South Africa has suffered from repeated reductions in the volume of military expenditures that it receives from the armed forces, in addition to the decline in the arms sales in general and the international fierce competition especially from the American side which gets the biggest share of international arms deals.

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