CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2022) The visit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Saudi Arabia did not bring any tangible results due to disagreements of parties on energy issues, media reported on Sunday.
Scholz paid a visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday as part of his two-day tour to three Gulf states. The chancellor was accompanied by a high-ranking business delegation. One of the goals of the visit was to diversify energy suppliers and lay the ground for concluding a deal on liquefied natural gas and hydrogen.
Saudi state news agency SPA reported following the visit that Scholz and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed bilateral issues, the topics of international cooperation and further development of relations.
The absence of the energy issue in the summary of the meeting suggests that negotiations on oil and gas deals were not fruitful, al-Arab newspaper reported. This could be connected to the reluctance of Saudi Arabia to participate in the spat between Russia and the West, or Riyadh's determination to fulfill the OPEC+ deals that cap oil production.
The absence of the energy deal between the two countries also could be connected to the human rights issues that Scholz raised during the visit alongside the issue of the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, the newspaper reported.
Since 2021, energy prices in Europe have been growing as part of a global trend. After the beginning of Russia's operation in Ukraine and the adoption of several packages of sanctions against Moscow in the West, fuel prices have accelerated growth, pushing many European governments to resort to contingency measures.
