RIYADH: UK finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Monday she was confident a trade deal with Gulf countries can be done quickly after she had “really good” meetings in Riyadh about an agreement that could help her plan to speed up economic growth.
“I am really confident we can get that deal over the line,” she said at a forum held in the Saudi capital, adding she was hopeful that the agreement could be reached “very soon.”
Reeves, making the first visit to the region by a British finance minister in six years, will seek to advance trade talks while attending Saudi Arabia’s flagship investment summit.
She planned to use the trip to speak with her counterparts from Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar to try to progress a trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council — a six-nation group.
British administrations have sought to reach an agreement with the GCC after the UK left the EU in 2020.
Reeves also expected to meet senior Saudi royals, members of President Donald Trump’s administration and business figures while in Saudi Arabia for a gathering of global political leaders and company chief executives.
Last year Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought a 15 percent stake in London’s Heathrow Airport from Spanish construction company Ferrovial and Britain said it expected further investment announcements this week.
New state-owned airline Riyadh Air, which ordered 25 partly British-built Airbus A350 aircraft in June, has announced its inaugural flight will be to Heathrow.
Britain’s finance ministry said it estimated a GCC trade deal would add £1.6 billion ($2.2 billion) a year to British economic output — equivalent to about 0.06 percent of annual gross domestic product.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Saudi Arabia and the UAE last year.
