The 82nd celebration of the National Day of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the year 2012 comes while the bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea are witnessing a qualitative leap and amazing developments that have extended to all aspects of political, economic, cultural, educational and military fields. One of the most important of such developments was the meeting between His Excellency President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques His Majesty King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud in Riyadh of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in early February 2012.
Fifty years have passed since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea. Marking this significant year between the two countreis, we have witnessed two very important events that symbolize and well reflect the intimate relationship between the friendly peoples, and which well reflected the nature of sincere cooperation between the two countries. The first event was when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia invited the Republic of Korea as the Guest of Honor to the National Festival for Heritage and Culture 2012 or “Janadriyah Festival”, one of the most important cultural festivals where the essence of culture of Saudi Arabia as well as Arab as a whole can be enjoyed.
The participation of the Republic of Korea has indeed left great memories to be cherished in the minds of the Saudi people and other visitors. The second important event came when the Republic of Korea has chosen the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the Guest of Honor for the Seoul International Book Fair in June, 2012. In the Book Fair, a variety of cultural and youth events as well as scientific and economic seminars were held on the sideline of the Exhibition. These events clearly show assurances of both sides and their sincere and earnest willingness to continue such relationship, with their keen effort to develop such relations in line with the principle of mutual interests and policies within the common denominators that bind our both countries. As has been documented, the mutual relations have witnessed steady developments and remarkable cooperation in various fields that responds to policies and principles stipulated in mutual agreements, talks, and mutual visits by officials from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea. Such efforts made the two countries’ relations one of the most important international relations within half a century. The mutual relations have been characterized by sincerity, honesty and commitment to all that have been agreed upon, without seeing problems or misunderstanding when carrying out these promises and agreements.
The year 1962 has witnessed the beginning of the establishment of Saudi-Korean diplomatic relations and, thus, the Embassy of Saudi Arabia that was opened in 1974 in Seoul, Republic of Korea, was the first Arab Embassy to be establisehd in Seoul. Since the establishement of diplomatic ties, the bilateral relaions in the early stages had witnessed a number of achievements, with the participation of Korean experts and manpower in the Kingdom to modernize its infrastructure, mainly with implementation of projects of roads, public buildings, water desalination, power generation, information technology and other various industrial projects. This was indeed quite enough to make Korea more qualified- thanks to its companies, experts, and well trained manpower-and thereby to win a significant share of large-scale projects carried out in the Kingdom. It also paved the way to conclude more deals between the two countries to carry out such projects, based on the needs of the Kingdom and the requirements of its development. In other words, the Saudi- Korean relationship has been “ full of singularity”, as has been described by His Excellency President Lee Myung-bak during a meeting with Saudi businessmen this year in Riyadh.
Those who review the economies of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea, and each country’s potentials, their status in the global economic system, they will not find themselves surprised at the solid Saudi-Korean partnership for the last 50 years, and their capability to create a productive environment, and how they became among the members of G20, and the group of the economically richest countries in the world. The friendship between the two countries, similarity of policies and chances of available integration between the two countries enabled both governments to draw a road map of their bilatreal relations with specifications appropriate for both sides, and help in making a later stage of distinguished partnership by enhancing the yearly value added of such relationship.
A number of agreements, committees-mainly, the Saudi –Korea Joint Committee-that connects both countries assure the two countries to build a geunie partenership that does not exclude any activity, so that the bilateral cooperation would be comperhenssive and responssive to the interest of the peoples of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea. The bilatreal relations in the political domain have witnessed similaraties in views regarding their positions towards the global issues and developments over the last 50 years.
In the field of trade, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the major trading partner to the Republic of Korea, where the Kingdom is the fourth largest trading partner to the Republic of Korea, while Korea is Saudi’s fifth largest one. There are nearly 129 joint projects and the size of trade volume between the two countries has increased over the last four years by 300% to 45 billion USD in 2011. The bilateral trade volume for this year is expected to reach 47 billion USD. Such extending growth in trade relations has been attributed to integration elements between the two countries.
Recently the relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea have taken an important trend, thanks to the advantages of the Korean experiences in field of education, A number of Saudi students have been enrolled in pretigious Korean universities and the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission in Seoul has been opened, as the first Arab, Islamic cultural office accredieted to the Republic of Korea, to guide and follow up the Saudi students’ education procedures. The number of Saudi students with various majors has now reached over 300. The bilateral cooperation in the education field has extended to interchange and cooperation among universities of both countries. Furthermore, the contribution of sports in promoting mutual relations through various visits and matches was quite remarkable.
Lastly, I would like to note with significance that such achievements in the march of bilateral relations would have not been accomplished without the kind and merciful assistance of Allah and the support and guidance from both rational leaderships that pay special attention to sustain and support the relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea.
Thanks to Allah, the pace of the relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea is moving smoothly as planned, heading towards the steady and impeccable progress and growth in serenity and harmony.
