Saudi Crown Prince leaves UK after efforts at public diplomacy

Gareth Browne, The National

London and Riyadh conclude a $90 billion trade and investment target

Image from article, with caption: London was plastered with posters of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ahead of his three day trip to the UK this past week.

Excerpt:

While Saudi visits to the UK have traditionally been defined by their focus on arms deals, Prince Mohammed’s new vision saw both sides attempting to move beyond this.

As Michael Stephens, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) told CNBC “it’s to get away from this perception that the UK just cares about selling arms to the Gulf States, which traditionally has been the way in which the success of our relationship with each of these Gulf States has been measured”.

Jane Kinninmont, a senior-research fellow at Chatham House, also saw the trip as a shift in strategy.

“Traditionally Saudi Arabia has had very little soft-power in the west ... with this trip there has been a lot of outreach,” she said.

“They are certainly trying to change the perception of the country, and to create an image of MBS [Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] as someone who’s driving social change and not just somebody who has to be dealt with.”

A conference organised by the kingdom’s royal charity MiSK saw young UK-based Saudis taking to the stage to speak about their country’s growing ability to accommodate its youth’s interests and ambitions – a manifestation of the Crown Prince’s reform programme Vision 2030.