Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is interested in Paraguay in areas such as energy, hydrogen, agriculture, petrochemicals and infrastructure

This Ministry of Industry and Commerce release was published using machine translation.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Member of the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abel Bin Ahmed Al Jubeir, made an official visit to the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Luis Alberto Castiglioni, on Tuesday 15, as part of the agenda developed in the country, which aims to strengthen bilateral ties, increase Paraguay's presence in the Middle East, and increase trade between the two countries, mainly to attract investment.

In addition, the meeting was attended by the Paraguayan ambassador in Qatar, Ángel Ramón Barchini; the Vice Ministers of Industry, MSMEs and the Investment and Export Network (REDIEX), Ramiro Samaniego, Isaac Godoy and Estefanía Laterza, respectively; directors of the MIC, and entourage of the Minister of Saudi Arabia, HE, Ambassador Huseein Mohammad Addulfatah Al Assiri; counselor, Norah Mohammad Al Bassam; secretary, Badr Abdullah Al Muaiquil; second secretary, Naef Abdulaziz; attaché of the Embassy of the Kingdom in Argentina, Ali Mohammad; and Muhamed El Mouradi, from the embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Argentina.

In the meeting with the senior official of the Saudi Arabian Government, Minister Castiglioni highlighted the great potential of the relationship between the two countries, pointing out that from the positions he was assigned to occupy, he promoted the rapprochement, either through the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Buenos Aires, and through the Embassy of Paraguay in Qatar. "This is the beginning of a new stage in our relationship between Saudi Arabia and Paraguay," said the MIC minister upon receiving the illustrious visitor at the headquarters of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

For his part, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Member of the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abel Bin Ahmed Al Jubeir, responded to the greeting by pointing out that they always seek to strengthen relations between the two countries and with the rest of the countries. of Latin America, and that now they have the opportunity to strengthen relations with Paraguay, which are promising, and which can help achieve the common good between the two countries.

"We talked about bilateral relations, about strengthening trade, cooperation and contact between the two countries. We agree that there are common areas and complementarity between the economies. We believe that we have shared values in terms of philosophies and points of view on the international system. We believe that the reforms that are being carried out in economic policies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in line with our 2030 vision, align very well with the economic changes that are occurring and have occurred in Paraguay. We believe that that generates opportunities for greater progress and we agree that we will continue consulting and looking for ways to unite our countries to take advantage of the opportunities that are very visible to all of us, be it in the field of energy, hydrogen, agriculture, petrochemicals, of infrastructure. We are going to continue these discussions and bring together the respective private sectors, so that seize the opportunities for the benefit of both peoples and countries," the Saudi Arabian minister said.

The senior Saudi official was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia (2015 - 2018), being the first person to hold this position without belonging to the royal family of Saud. He was previously the Saudi ambassador to the United States (2007 - 2015) and foreign affairs adviser to the former Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz.