Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman arrives on Europe visit -

Athens: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is on a tour of European countries and met Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis. After this, Prince Mohammed will visit France. the international media is drawing attention to the fact that the Saudi crown prince is on a tour of Europe for the first time since the murder of journalist Khashoggi in 2018. Meanwhile, the visit of the crown prince of fuel-rich Saudi to Europe is eye-catching as European countries face fuel shortages due to the conflict raging in Ukraine.

Moreover, Crown Prince Mohammed arrived in the Greek capital of Athens on Tuesday with a large delegation, including government officials and businessmen. This was followed by a special meeting between the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the Prime Minister of Greece. In this, cooperation agreements on energy, commercial investment, maritime trade and defence were concluded between the two countries. Before his European tour, Crown Prince Mohammed had already indicated that energy cooperation would enable fuel supply to Greece at a meagre price.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Turkey in 2018. Turkey blamed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed for Khashoggi’s murder. Turkey blamed that the killing of journalist Khashoggi was carried out under orders from Prince Mohammed. After this, European countries, including the United States, withdrew from cooperation with Saudi Arabia. European countries accused Saudi Arabia of violating human rights norms.

European analysts reminded that Crown Prince Mohammed avoided visiting Western countries after the United States and European countries criticized Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s murder. But some European countries like Greece had adopted a policy of continuing cooperation with Saudi Arabia. In 2020, the Prime Minister of Greece visited Saudi Arabia and met Crown Prince Mohammed. The Greek Prime Minister tried to get Saudi investment and increase bilateral cooperation. In such a situation, the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed to Greece becomes important. After this, the Saudi Crown Prince will leave for France and meet President Emmanuel Macron.

This is the second meeting between the French president and the leadership of an Arab country in the last ten days. Last week, the head of state of UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan visited France to discuss fuel cooperation with President Macron. At this time, the two countries also signed a fuel cooperation agreement.

Meanwhile, the fuel shortage crisis in front of European countries is worsening due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict over the last four months. While Russia is cutting down fuel supplies, European countries are looking up to the oil-rich Middle East countries with high expectations. Two months ago, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Saudi Arabia and UAE.

The dependence of European countries on Russian fuel has become a huge problem. Russia is accused of using fuel as a weapon against Europe. In such a situation, European countries are looking for alternatives to Russian fuel and establishing cooperation with the Middle East countries for this. America is also encouraging this cooperation between Europe and the Middle East countries to jolt Russia. US President Joe Biden recently visited the Middle East countries for this very purpose.

Prince Mohammed’s visit to Europe indicates that President Biden’s appeal to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries to provide fuel to European countries seems to be bearing fruit. At the same time, Russia also seems to have increased its fuel cooperation with Iran and started strong fuel sales to China and India, the traditional consumers of the Middle East countries for fuel. Therefore, it is clear that these transactions falling under the title of energy cooperation are a part of the geopolitical power struggle.