Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah made a rare visit to Britain on Monday where he will be the guest of Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
According to the BBC, King Abdullah’s visit -- the first by a Saudi monarch for 20 years -- shows how Saudi Arabia has become one of the UK’s closest allies in the Middle East, with the relationship going beyond security and trade, although last year British commercial exports to Riyadh exceeded £3.5bn.
More than 20,000 Britons live and work in Saudi Arabia and the UK has now landed a massive export order for the Typhoon fighter jet a deal that caused huge controversy. In 2006, the multi-billion pound order was about to be cancelled after the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) threatened to investigate the private Swiss bank accounts of Saudi princes as part of their probe into alleged corruption in Saudi-UK arms deals dating back to the 1980s.
The Saudi kingdom also threatened at the time to stop cooperating with the UK on counter-terrorism if the probe went ahead.
Tony Blair, who was prime minister at the time, stopped the probe, triggering an outcry by anti-corruption campaigners in the UK and Europe.
But now Saudi and British officials hope that this issue won’t overshadow the so-called Two Kingdoms Dialogue.
According to the UK Foreign Office, the conference will focus on youth, education and cultural dialogue. Of course the two sides will also discuss their growing bilateral trade as well as diplomatic and security co-operation on trying to resolve conflicts in the Middle East.
King Abdullah's 2002 peace initiative for the Palestinian-Israeli dispute is the only Arab peace plan available. Saudi Arabia have also been working to ease tensions in Lebanon and to curb violence in Iraq.
But the Saudis’ main concern today is how to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Despite the urgency of the issue, King Abdullah declined to discuss it in a recent interview with the BBC, so this week's visit is unlikely to see any new announcements in that area.
Officials also say that the Saudis will try to correct some of the misconceptions that have arisen about their country after the September 9, 2001 attacks in the United States.
In his interview with the BBC, King Abdullah accused Britain of not doing enough to fight international terrorism, which he said would take 20 to 30 years to defeat. The Saudi king also said that his government passed the UK information that might have prevented the 2005 London bombings.
"We have sent information to Great Britain before the terrorist attacks in Britain but unfortunately no action was taken. And it may have been able to maybe avert the tragedy."
However, UK officials strongly denied King Abdullah’s comments.
Despite close Anglo-Saudi co-operation, the king’s visit provoked controversy in the UK.
The acting leader of Britain's third party, the centre-left Liberal Democrats, Vincent Cable, announced that he is boycotting the visit in protest over human alleged corruption in Al Yamamah arms deal.
"In my opinion, it is quite wrong for the British government to have proposed a state visit at this time," Cable wrote in a letter to the Saudi ambassador.
A demonstration is also planned on Wednesday outside the Saudi embassy in London in protest at the country's human rights record.
With so much controversy surrounding King Abdullah’s visit, it’s hard to tell why the British government chose to invite him at this particular time.
However, a spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office said that the decision to invite King Abdullah was a reflection of the "long-standing friendship" between the two nations.
Source: Aljazeera.com