Deputy crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman al Saud said that the diplomacy of Saudi Arabia is seeking to convince Russia that it has not relied on Iran, concluding with them contracts and deals. In an interview with The Washington Post Ibn Salman said that Saudi Arabia is ready to confirm his words with actions to prove to Russia that it will be able to control the situation in the region better than Iran. So, recently there was, perhaps, the most important event for Moscow in the XXI century — were agreed and coordinated oil policy between the two countries.
In discussing the question of relations with the United States, Ibn Salman said that he is “pretty optimistic” to Donald Trump, calling him “a President who will return the United States in the right direction and will set a new course, different from the policies of Barack Obama, the confidence of the representatives of Saudi Arabia which has been undermined”. He also added that although one hundred days from the beginning of the presidency, trump has not yet passed, he’s already recovered all the U.S. alliances with its traditional allies.
The American newspaper stated that the main task of Muhammad Ibn Salman is the preservation of the Union with the United States and resilience in order not to become a puppet in his hands. He said: “We were exposed to and the influence of the USA on our country, but it was not to exert pressure on us. On the contrary, if the US government tried to pressure us, our reaction, our actions would be entirely the opposite.” He stressed that “without cultural diversity, we will become something like North Korea… But due to the fact that the United States remains our ally, we will, indeed, grow and “absorb” all the world’s global change.”
Prince Mohammed bin Salman reiterated the meaning of his reasoning, saying that radical Islamism (approach) is a new phenomenon in Saudi Arabia, resulting from the Iranian revolution in 1979, and the capture of the representatives of radical movements in the same year the Grand mosque in Mecca, and became a response to Shiite extremism. The Minister of defence also added: “I’m a young man, and seventy percent of our people are also young. We don’t want to lose his life because of this “tornado” in which the revolution of Khomeini, we have lived the last thirty years. It became the starting point of terrorism and extremism. We want to end this. The people of Saudi Arabia want to enjoy the future life. At the same time we preserve our religion, traditions and customs. We don’t want to live in an era that began in 1979… her time has passed.”
The Deputy crown Prince stressed that currently Saudi Arabia is seriously carrying out and implementing economic and social reforms. Moreover, the forces will be thrown on the development of the tourism cluster, in order to remained in the country the money the Saudis spend each year on travel. The expenses of Saudis abroad are estimated at $ 22 billion. Ibn Salman also spoke in detail about several essential subjects, for example, about foreign policy, about the plans of privatizations giant companies involved in oil production, as well as on the strategy of investment in the domestic industrial sector. The Saudi government intends to auction the share of Saudi Aramco in the amount of 5% in 2018. Ibn Salman said that the exact size of the proposal Aramco will depend on the demand in the financial market and the availability of good opportunities for profits from investing. He noted that the basic idea of selling shares in Royal petroleum Fund is to collect money and then use them to diversify the country’s economy, which currently depends entirely on and rests on the energy sector.
Deputy crown Prince of Saudi Arabia expressed his concern and fears that the people of SA are still not satisfied with the level of reform. He said, “the Most alarming point is that the Saudi people are not satisfied with what is happening, but in order to satisfy the desires of local residents, need to conduct large-scale changes and reforms, as the aspirations and ambitions of the population is very high.”
Manufacture of weapons and vehicles
Ibn Salman said that currently, Saudi Arabia spends 60-80 billion dollars on buying weapons from abroad, which is why the government is seeking to create a domestic industry in order to fully provide themselves with arms. However, he did not specify the time frame within which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be able to understand what profit it receives from such production. The defense Minister also added that Saudi Arabia spends the amount of almost $ 14 billion on the import of cars, which is why it intends to begin producing their vehicles.
Analysts at IHS organizations provided a report, which stated that the import of arms to Saudi Arabia increased by 50%, reaching 9.3 billion in 2016, and sales of weapons have increased by about 10% last year.
