Greece, Saudi Arabia to sign energy deal, Crown Prince says

Greece and Saudi Arabia will sign a deal on renewable energy and discuss other investments and security, Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, said on Tuesday in a meeting with Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in Athens, Reuters reports.

Prince Mohammed’s visit to Greece is his first to a member state of the European Union since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

“We can provide Greece and South-west Europe through Greece with much cheaper renewable energy and get a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed about that today,” Prince Mohammed said, sitting alongside Mitsotakis.

Prince Mohammed’s last official visit outside the Middle East had been to Japan in 2019 for a G20 summit.

Greece and Saudi Arabia agreed in May on the main terms to set up a joint venture to build a data cable, the so-called “East to Med data Corridor”, which will be developed by MENA HUB, owned by Saudi Arabia’s STC and Greek telecoms and satellite applications company, TTSA.

OPINION: The Middle East can help resolve Europe’s energy crisis with green energy investments

 A Greek diplomatic source has said that a deal on the undersea cable along with other agreements in energy and military would be signed.

“We will be signing important agreements and we will have an opportunity to further discuss regional developments,” Mitsotakis said.

Mitsotakis was among Western leaders who have visited Riyadh since the murder of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which sparked an outcry in the West and tainted the Prince’s image as a reformist pushing to open up Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter.

France’s President, Emanuel Macron, also visited Riyadh last year and US President Joe Biden met with Prince Mohammed on a trip to Saudi Arabia earlier this month as Washington works to ease tension with Riyadh.

US intelligence has implicated the Prince in the killing of Khashoggi, a charge the Prince and Saudi authorities deny.

After Greece, Prince Mohammed will head to France.