Setting the seal on a year of Saudi-UK partnership

This has been some year for the historic relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UK, bookended by two landmark events.
In May, we saw the largest UK outward-bound trade mission in a decade head to Riyadh. Great Futures saw 450 senior British business representatives, representing a range of sectors, from health, education and tourism to clean energy, technology and investment, celebrate existing links and forge new ones. And the year will have a final seal set on it this week, as it concludes with the state visit of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
His visit comes at a critical time for the region, as Syria reignites and Gaza awaits the Trump presidency, among other matters. But Starmer will want to ensure the bilateral relationship takes prominence.
Relationships do not stand still. The best of them, no matter how historic or deeply rooted, need refreshment and dynamism to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow with the confidence built through shouldering yesterday’s tests.
Saudi Arabia and the UK demonstrate such a dynamic partnership, woven into the history of the wider region, but containing specific contemporary ambitions for each other. Starmer has made no secret that the primary aim and drive of his government is growth and he has already shown a willingness to take tough decisions at home, making difficult choices to fulfill his determination. UK growth will depend on expanding trade and investment and, while new partners will always be sought, those who know Britain best are the most likely to recognize the new opportunities that are arising. The PM’s visit will both refresh those existing ties and, I believe, prompt new ones on the back of Great Futures.
Our relationship works for both countries. Between 2017 and 2023, more than $21 billion of investment came to the UK from Saudi Arabia, at a time when Britain was the third-largest source of foreign direct investment the other way. Pleasingly for the UK, such investment was not confined to London and the south of England, with the northeast in particular benefiting, not only at Newcastle United but also from clean and green energy investment on Teesside.

The UK knows that the new Middle East cannot afford regional conflict as its backdrop, as people need the opportunities that only stability can provide. 

Alistair Burt

However, London’s financial expertise and global reach was also confirmed by the decision of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, to raise $8.5 billion in London from the new world of green bonds in 2022-23.
Annual bilateral trade now stands at £17 billion ($21 billion), up from £12 billion in 2018, and things are moving fast. More than 50 UK companies are establishing regional headquarters in Riyadh, 1,100 UK businesses operate in Saudi Arabia and school and university engagement is growing. I would expect the prime minister to continue the progress on the long-sought-after free trade agreement throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council, which the UK government calculates as being worth a boost of perhaps £8 billion to trade. I also expect a lot of interest in the technology industries and businesses of the future, with UK companies already heavily involved in Neom and related opportunities. Nor will the people-to-people ties be neglected as, from tourism to education, many thousands travel each way every year.
Starmer’s visit comes at a critical time, not only for the region and the world’s economic prospects, but also in terms of discussing the two countries’ common interest in ending conflict and bringing stability to a region currently devastated by war. The intelligence and security links between the UK and Saudi Arabia remain a core element of the trust and confidence between the two states. I suspect that, although a belief is held in London that the destiny of the Middle East is now being shaped rather more by the region’s own states than by external powers, there is an immense determination to share expertise and support at the tables where decisions must be taken and reassure friends that burdens will continue to be shared by a UK whose interest will never wane.
The UK knows that the new Middle East, as seen in Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia and similar prospectuses elsewhere, cannot afford regional conflict as its backdrop, as people need the opportunities in life that only stability can provide.
Relationships are tested over time and at times of significance. This is such a time. The ability that Saudi Arabia has shown in recent times to drive change on a major scale, look beyond its historical resources and create a new future is built on taking others with it and convincing them that the enmities of the past should be resolved, overcome and put aside in the same manner as old technologies and industries. This visit should allow the UK, from its political leadership to those building the economy of the future, to be seen as a key partner in that endeavor.

• Alistair Burt is a former UK member of Parliament who has twice held ministerial positions in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; as parliamentary undersecretary of state from 2010 to 2013 and as minister of state for the Middle East from 2017 to 2019. X: @AlistairBurtUK