Arab News
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, chose a highly flexible platform to set the record straight about the Kingdom’s future policies toward its Eastern and Western partners, as well as its solid commitments that did not need any continuous assertion — even though, since the emergence of the COVID-19 crisis, the world in all its historical poles has sensed a strategic shaking that observers cannot miss.
The minister chose to appear before an elite group from leading state and private Japanese news agencies, such as NHK, Kyodo News, The Asahi Shimbun, Jiji Press and Yomiuri Shimbun, at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo, the same place that warmly witnessed the launching of the Japanese version of Arab News two years ago.
Prince Faisal’s appearance was an attempt to address the modern consciousness being formed in the countries of old-new friends, and for this he chose what was both a formal and an informal location.
He chose to come face to face with media institutions with long-established traditions, deep experience, and worrying and sometimes skeptical questions. He did so hours after the conclusion of the most prominent event in the Middle East — US President Joe Biden’s time-sensitive participation in a major summit in Jeddah, during which major issues were discussed with Middle Eastern leaders — and presented a transparent briefing on the summit’s findings and the US leader’s visit.
Timing was no less sensitive in the East. History was on a random date with an individual killer who decided to assassinate Shinzo Abe, one of the most important leaders in modern Japanese history, in a region that has always floated on invisible tensions, and that needs far-sighted and unanimously-liked leaders, just like Abe.
It was the day on which former Prime Minister Abe, “the Kingdom’s big friend” and “the highly influential statesman” — as described by the minister at his funeral — succumbed to a fate that brought back one of the most pessimistic scenarios.
In similar circumstances, Prince Faisal firmly responded in the name of the Kingdom, to readdress the East, with considerable vitality and boldness, the most influential foreign political headlines. He reaffirmed the Kingdom’s explanation of the energy crisis, stating that it is the result of refining inability rather than production scarcity, which is something significantly important to the Kingdom’s major partners, including Japan.
He also reaffirmed that OPEC+ would remain key to solving and stabilizing oil markets in any foreseeable future determined by the Kingdom.
His speech came after a meeting with the Japanese prime minister and foreign minister, in a new boost at the highest levels for common files and compatible visions.
It is one of the examples that demonstrate the manifestation of the essence of the Kingdom’s foreign policy rhetoric.
In a world battling climate crises and geopolitical dilemmas, and amid an international rhetoric characterized by timely opportunism, political hypocrisy and buzzing leaks, the Kingdom points out, at every available opportunity, its strategic priorities reflected in the details and fundamentals of its bold vision. Moreover, its past green initiatives do not fall on deaf ears whenever tensions arise elsewhere.
Prince Faisal clearly and transparently put the partnership of Saudi Arabia and Japan, through their joint vision, on its new track “after two years of suspension due to the repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis,” affirming in an interesting note that what we will do in the future will not overlook what has been done in the past. Therefore, any matter that was put on hold due to a temporary crisis can be resumed. The killer’s gun caused a great tragedy with the loss of a unique leader like Abe while delivering a peaceful and optimistic speech about the future. The tragedy caused “great sadness and major shock” in the Kingdom. It also brought back, during Abe’s funeral, the discussion on the joint desire to achieve the best for the future of both countries.
