DOHA/ABU DHABI/DSCHIDDA (dpa-AFX) – End of the ice age with Saudi Arabia and additional energy supplies from the United Arab Emirates – that is the balance of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s two-day trip to the Arabian Peninsula. During his visit to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, the Essen-based energy company RWE signed a contract for the import of 137,000 cubic meters of liquid gas (LNG) on Sunday. They should help Germany on its way out of dependence on Russian gas.
However, the amount is relatively small – less than what flowed through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany in just one day before the Ukraine war. However, the treaty has a certain symbolic meaning. Germany has been trying to get additional liquid gas supplies from the Gulf region for six months. Now the spell seems broken. The first LNG delivery is scheduled to arrive by ship in Brunsbüttel near Hamburg at the beginning of next year. Further deliveries are planned.
Scholz: Addiction will not happen to us again
A second deal was also concluded during the Scholz visit: the Emirati state-owned company ADNOC will also be delivering up to 250,000 tons of diesel fuel to Germany every month from 2023. The agreement on this was concluded with the Lower Saxony energy company Hoyer.
Scholz emphasized how important it is to rely on as many suppliers as possible for the energy supply. Dependency on one supplier “will certainly not happen to us again,” stressed the Chancellor. Until the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Germany still obtained 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia. Deliveries from there have now largely ceased and the German gas suppliers are looking for new sources of supply. The UAE has the seventh largest natural gas reserves in the world.
Ice age ended with a handshake with Saudi Arabia
Scholz had started his two-day trip to the Arabian Peninsula on Saturday in Saudi Arabia – undoubtedly the most difficult of the three stations. He was received by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Royal Palace of Peace. The de facto ruler of the region’s most powerful state is being held responsible by US intelligence services for the brutal murder of Saudi government critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul four years ago. However, he himself denies being the mastermind behind the action.
The murder had led to the international isolation of the 37-year-old heir to the throne and plunged German-Saudi relations into a crisis that lasted for years. It ended on Saturday with a strong handshake and a friendly smile from Chancellor Scholz as he welcomed the Crown Prince. The conversation that followed lasted an hour longer than planned – first in a large group, then in private, and finally over lunch.
According to Scholz, he addressed the murder of Khashoggi in the conversation with Mohammed. “All issues” related to civil and human rights were discussed, he said. “That’s the way it should be. And you can be sure that nothing that needs to be said has gone unanswered.”
Biden was clearer in Jeddah than Scholz
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has since resigned, and US President Joe Biden were Germany’s most important allies in Saudi Arabia before Scholz. In July, the crown prince was in the EU for official meetings for the first time since the murder. Scholz picked up on that. He also wants to resume the thread of the conversation with a view to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and its consequences. For him, it’s about staying in dialogue with difficult partners so as not to lose them to countries like Russia or China.
Biden also asked the crown prince about the murder of Khashoggi during his visit to Jeddah in July. However, he subsequently became clearer about Muhammad’s responsibility for the murder. “He (Mohammed) basically said he wasn’t personally responsible. I implied that I think he is,” Biden said at the time.
Is the World Cup in Qatar in good hands?
The last stop on the chancellor’s trip was Qatar, where the soccer World Cup will be held in autumn. The rich emirate has been criticized for human rights violations and the treatment of workers from other countries. Scholz acknowledged progress in working conditions, “even if that does not correspond to the ideas that we have ourselves”.
In the past there had been fatal accidents on World Cup construction sites. The emirate’s government refers to its own reforms and rejects some of the criticism.
The world championship there starts on November 20th. Scholz left open whether he will travel there himself, but the Chancellor announced a visit from German government members. “Of course, the question of how we go there must be decided promptly. But it will be the case that someone will be there,” he said./mfi/DP/he
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