Mr Boris Johnson arrived at Abu Dhabi airport in the UAE on Wednesday, where he greeted British Ambassador to the UAE, Patrick Moody. He was welcomed with a guard of honour before meeting Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. Mr Johnson then travelled to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to meet Crown Prince Salman.
British PM’s visit to Saudia Arabia mainly aims at lowering ascending gasoline prices, as the West struggles with economic gale-force from the Russia-Ukraine war. Mr Johnson will be seeking greater investments in the UK’s renewable energy transition and ways to conserve more oil to reduce British reliance on Russian energy supplies.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to bring up human rights when he meets Gulf leaders for conversations about halting dependency on Russian oil and gas after the invasion of Ukraine. He will also talk over energy security and other matters in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday. He said a global alliance was required “to deal with the new reality we face”.
The world must wean itself off Russian hydrocarbons and starve Putin’s addiction to oil and gas,” Johnson said before his meetings. “Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are key international partners in that effort.” Johnson “set out his deep concerns about the chaos unleashed by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and stressed the importance of working together to improve stability in the global energy market”, his office said in a statement. His visit also comes four days after Saudi Arabia executed 81 men, the hugest number in a single day for decades, for offences ranging from joining militant groups to holding “eccentric beliefs”.
When asked regarding criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, Johnson said: “I’ve raised all those issues many, many times over the past and I’ll raise them all again today. “But we have long, long-standing relationships with this part of the world and we need to recognize the very important relationship that we have and not just in hydrocarbons.”
His visit, however, is also about pressing two primary OPEC producers to pump more oil, which would result in a rapid effect on Brent Crude prices that almost touched $140 per barrel last week. Costs have lowered to around $100 in the last few days, due to new pandemic lockdowns in China. Many UK legislators, including those in Johnson’s Conservative party, have disputed the decision to visit Saudi Arabia, referring to its recent mass execution of 81 people on Saturday.
