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Chancellor Scholz in conversation with Crown Prince bin Salman: "All issues discussed that revolve around questions of civil and human rights"
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi four years ago, diplomatic relations between Germany and Saudi Arabia have largely been frozen.
Another reason was the aggressive behavior of the Saudis in the ongoing war in Yemen.
But now the federal government is trying to normalize, it is also about winning over the powerful Gulf state as a potential energy supplier.
At his meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) addressed his host on the sensitive issue of human rights and the murder of Kashoggi.
"We discussed all questions that revolve around questions of civil and human rights," he said, according to the dpa news agency, in response to a question from a journalist at a subsequent press event.
“That's how it should be.
And you can be sure that nothing that needs to be said has remained undiscussed," Scholz continued.
However, he did not give any further details.
Crown Prince bin Salman is being held responsible by US intelligence for the gruesome murder of the Saudi government critic and journalist at the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul in 2018.
The heir to the throne denies being the mastermind.
Strong handshake under the king's portrait
The German Chancellor was received with a strong handshake in the Royal Palace of Peace.
Both took a seat under a portrait of King Salman for the conversation.
With French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has since resigned, and US President Joe Biden, Germany's most important allies were guests in Saudi Arabia before Scholz.
The crown prince traveled to the EU for official meetings for the first time in July.
Scholz is building on this easing and wants to resume the thread of the conversation, also with a view to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and its consequences for the German energy industry and consumer prices.
It is also necessary to stay in dialogue with difficult partners in order not to lose them to alliances with countries like Russia or China.
Despite some reforms, the strictly conservative kingdom and absolutist government of Saudi Arabia has been criticized primarily because of the human rights situation.
The human rights organization Amnesty International had therefore demanded clear words from the Chancellor before Scholz's trip: "Even in view of all the geopolitical and energy policy constraints, the Chancellor should not remain silent about the human rights violations in the country during his trip to Saudi Arabia."
The organization Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières; RSF) had asked Scholz to also address press freedom.
"But if he wants to do business with these governments, he should set one condition: that their rulers stop trampling on the media as a fundamental pillar of the rule of law," RSF Germany managing director Christian Mihr told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung « (NOZ).
But there is also the equally sensitive issue of arms exports to Saudi Arabia.
According to research by the peace research institute Sipri, the kingdom is one of the five largest arms importers in the world, and Germany is one of the five largest exporters.
Under the traffic light government, however, not a single arms export to Saudi Arabia was approved.
This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Economics to a request from the Left Party, which was presented to the AFP news agency on Saturday.
The reason for the reluctance is an export ban that has been in effect since November 2018.
Scholz emphasized in the press conference that the economic issues were primarily about cooperation in the production and transport of hydrogen.
Scholz did not answer the question of whether the crown prince had asked him to relax the arms export rules.
“Everyone knows we have a very strict policy here.
And in line with these rules, decisions have been made in recent years that have been well considered.
And we will continue to make well-considered decisions,” he said.
"Salesman of a shabby double standard"
For Qatar, on the other hand, another Gulf state that Scholz wants to visit on the Arabian Peninsula in the coming days, the ministry gave 46 individual permits.
The value of these armaments amounted to 20.7 million euros, as stated in the response from the department of Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) on September 20th.
Ten permits worth a good 219,000 euros were listed for the United Arab Emirates.
Left-wing MP Sevim Dagdelen accused Scholz of being “a traveling salesman with a shabby double standard” with regard to his trip.
Although the federal government no longer wants gas and oil from Russia, it is now backing "energy deals with bloody dictatorships in the Gulf."
Dagdelen assumed that the visit "threatened to pave the way for new shipments of weapons."
Economics Minister Habeck traveled to Qatar in March to negotiate an energy deal with the emirate.
But the visit, which was viewed critically in the media, has so far had no concrete results.
On Saturday evening, Scholz wanted to travel first to the United Arab Emirates and then to Qatar.
It was initially unclear which contracts for the delivery of liquefied natural gas or - in the medium and long term - hydrogen from the region to Germany could be concluded.
The Chancellor's environment said: "We will bring ambitious proposals to a conclusion." However, the trip should not become a pure "energy shopping tour".
Scholz will be accompanied by eleven top German managers.
Among others, Airbus, Thyssenkrupp and Siemens Energy are represented in the business delegation.
The energy industry is not only hoping for short-term gas exports from the Gulf region from the trip, but also for longer-term partnerships.
bor/dpa/Reuters/AFP
