Month: December 2021

Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud will visit Oman on Monday 6 December.

This comes after Sultan Haitham visited Saudi Arabia on 11 July 2021. Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said arrived in Neom, Saudi Arabia and met King Salman. Neom is the site of a projected city, part of the Saudi Vision 2030 push.
Saudi Arabia, along with the UAE, has invested heavily in Oman and has so far probably created more jobs than states such as China, despite the latter’s involvement on Duqm.
Saudi Arabia has just hosted French President Emmanuel Macron part of President Macron’s Gulf tour when he also visited the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Oman will be hoping for additional investment from Saudi Arabia that will be boosted with the expected opening of the road link between Oman and Saudi Arabia through the Empty Quarter, that I blogged about as being near opening in 2015. The road will be useful to improve flow of goods between the two countries, especially for consumer products like Al Marai.
A long hoped for oil-pipeline from Saudi’s oils fields into Duqm Oman is a longer-term project. The Oman-Saudi road will make its construction easier as the road passes through the oil area of Shaybah in Eastern Saudi Arabia. Other infrastructure areas is the much anticipated Gulf Rail project, that would not only link the GCC states but in Oman will be a much needed freight, and hopefully, passenger service that will remove pressure on Oman’s road network.
The announcement about Prince Salman’s visit will doubtless be followed by numerous agreements between the two countries and companies.

Following his visit, Prince Salman will travel through the GCC – meeting with leaders of the UAE on Tuesday and then onto Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.