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Saudi Arabia to play positive role at Washington financial summit
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Friday that the world's largest oil exporter will play a "positive role" at this weekend's financial summit in Washington.official
- Reuters
- Published: 23:21 November 14, 2008
United Nations: Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Friday that the world's largest oil exporter will play a "positive role" at this weekend's financial summit in Washington.
But the minister declined to say if the kingdom would hand a cheque over to the International Monetary Fund at the G20 meeting for emergency funding to help developing econ-omies get over the global credit crunch.
"The role of Saudi Arabia, I am sure, will be a positive role in this endeavour but as to details I don't think I will be allowed to give details to you on what we will offer in the conference," Prince Saud Al Faisal told a news conference after a two-day interfaith meeting at the United Nations.
"We attend the conference and then we give you the details," he added.
Saudi Arabia, the International Monetary Fund's largest Arab shareholder and the only Arab state in the Group of 20 invited to the summit, has been urged to contribute emergency funds to help stem the global financial crisis.
The summit will take place today and tomorrow.
"The financial summit has not been held yet in order to talk about what can be offered or not offered by any country," Prince Saud said.
"I think all the countries that are invited are going there to look at the economic crisis that is facing the world and see how they can each contribute to finding a solution that would prevent this crisis from continuing, spreading and leading to hardship for the international community," he added.
Saudi officials have said the kingdom will join international calls for greater oversight of financial markets at the summit but is playing a waiting game on whether it will offer money to the IMF to deal with the credit crisis. "The kingdom is keeping its options open. It wants to contribute but it also wants to attend the summit, listen, review and assess the situation and come back later with the money," one official close to the Saudi delegation said.
"They [Saudi officials] believe that the funds available are adequate to deal with emergencies but they might have to respond to the pressures," he added.
Qatar has already pledged help while Kuwait has been more cagey, but the two have suffered more than Riyadh due to their sovereign funds' heavy exposure to US and European stocks.
The Saudi hit has been less. The bourse lost some 40 per cent of its value this year and question marks have been raised over some major projects because of falling oil prices - now under $60 a barrel from a record $147 in July.
But with most of its population suffering from the bourse crash and rising costs of living over the past year, the government will not want to appear as a cash cow for the West.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said after meeting Saudi rulers earlier this month that he expected Riyadh to chip in.
A senior banker familiar with Saudi thinking also saw Riyadh offering the IMF help.
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