Government | Sunday 10 March, 2019 3:48 am |

A Saudi Shoura Council delegation met with European Parliament member Geoffrey Van Orden at the parliament’s headquarters in Brussels on Friday. The delegation was headed by Prince Khalid bin Abdullah, a member of the council and chairman of the Saudi-European Parliamentary Friendship Committee.

The meeting discussed ways to strengthen parliamentary relations and other topics of common interest. 

The delegation also met Pol Van Den Driessche, chairman of the Belgian Inter-Parliamentary Union Group, and reviewed Saudi-Belgian relations, stressing the importance of strengthening parliamentary ties between the council and the Belgian Parliament. 

Council members Nayef Al-Roumi, Hoda Al-Helaissi and Mosaed Al-Feryan, and head of the Saudi mission to the EU, Saad Al-Arifi, attended both meetings. 

Prince Khalid said that the visit is in the context of the special relations between the Kingdom and the EU, supported by King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He noted that the delegation reviewed Saudi Vision 2030, an important strategy that has started a qualitative shift for the Kingdom.

The delegation confirmed the political and economic importance of Saudi Arabia in the Arab world, and its active role on the international level.

With the support of its Chairman, Abdullah ibn Muhammed Al ash-Sheikh, the council is a pioneer in parliamentary diplomacy to bolster Saudi relations through friendship committees with various parliamentary councils and unions, he said.