President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) will receive the official visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Brazil. The Saudi Arabian leader is known for his repressive agenda and is accused of murdering and maiming journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of his regime.
The meeting between the two is scheduled to take place on March 14, in an attempt by the Brazilian government to emphasize the economic agenda with the Middle Eastern country. The information about the visit was disclosed by Natuza Nery’s blog, in the G1, and confirmed by the sheet with diplomatic sources.
There was also the expectation that Yasir Al-Rumayya would join the entourage. He is the managing director of PIF (Public Investment Fund), a sovereign fund in the Saudi kingdom and one of the largest in the world, with a portfolio of almost US$ 500 billion (R$ 2.6 trillion). However, the visit was cancelled.
The prince, known as MBS, is named by US intelligence as responsible for approving the plan to assassinate Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Washington Post columnist and MBS critic was last seen at the consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, where he reportedly received a lethal injection before having his body dismembered and the remains – never found – removed from the scene. in garbage bags.
The prince is one of the leaders of authoritarian governments who have often been praised by Bolsonaro and allies since the beginning of his term. In 2019, the president met with MBS in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and said he had “a certain affinity” with the prince, whom he claimed to be “almost brother”.
At the time, Bolsonaro was traveling with the aim of exposing Brazil to Saudi investors gathered at the conference known as Davos no Deserto, in an allusion to the event that brings together companies and heads of state in Davos, Switzerland.
Just this month, Bolsonaro was in Russia and met with President Vladimir Putin. Afterwards, he met with Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, on an impromptu trip to the country, where he repeated the gesture made with the Saudi.
He called Prime Minister Orbán “my brother, given our affinities” and celebrated “values ​​that we represent, which can be summed up in four words: God, homeland, family and freedom.”
An eventual visit to Brazil by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, holder of the PIF, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, would tend to have a more positive effect, as it could be interpreted as a gesture of prestige. Upon returning from a trip to Saudi Arabia in 2019, members of the presidential entourage announced that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund would invest US$10 billion (R$51.3 billion) in Brazil, without specifying dates or projects.
Created in 1971, the fund is a financial arm of the Saudi government and its strategy includes buying stakes in foreign companies.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan is a prominent figure in Saudi finance. He attended Harvard Business School, a graduate school at the prestigious American university focused on business administration. He was on the board of the Saudi Stock Exchange, presides over the board of directors of Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, and is part of the kingdom’s council of ministers.
Al-Rumayyan also has a seat in the upper echelon of companies that received larger contributions from the PIF. He sits on Uber’s board of directors and takes part in the helm of English team Newcastle United, representing the fund in the consortium that bought the club for an estimated £300m (£2bn).
Typically, the business world welcomes associations with a sovereign wealth fund the size of the PIF. Earlier this year, for example, BRF, owner of the Sadia and Perdigão brand, signed a memorandum with the PIF for the creation of a company that will operate in the entire chicken meat production chain in Saudi Arabia. Shortly after the announcement of the partnership, the company’s share price rose 3%, while the Brazilian stock exchange was up 0.26%.
But the Saudi government’s repressive stance has even affected the kingdom’s financial relations. Shortly after the journalist’s murder, for example, Uber’s executive director, Dara Khosrowshahi, canceled his participation in Davos do Deserto.
News agencies reported at the time that in a phone call to Al-Rumayyan, the executive had said that he found the allegations appalling.
In the case of Newcastle, it affected the progress of the business. The Premier League vetoed the sale of the team, which ended up in court, because it did not want to allow a state complacent with piracy of TV signals from championship games to be allowed to have a local club. Part of the crowd also did not like the prospect of having the team associated with an authoritarian regime.
Non-governmental organizations warned that the disrespect for human rights, a hallmark of Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s administration, would damage Newcastle’s image.
The Bolsonaro government has already expressed its intention to offer the PIF the Ferrogrão, a railroad planned to link Mato Grosso to Pará and transport the grain harvest from the Midwest through ports in the North region.
The project, considered vital for agribusiness in the analysis of the Minister of Infrastructure, TarcÃsio de Freitas, provides for 933 kilometers of tracks and will require investments of R$ 21.5 billion. As it crosses part of the Amazon, with environmental risks and for the safety of indigenous communities, experts in the sector question its viability, which scares away investors worried about the green agenda.
Despite the delay in closing offers of this size on Brazilian soil, Bolsonaristas already thank the Saudi kingdom.
In March 2021, in his farewell speech at the presidency of the Chamber’s Foreign Relations Committee, deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro praised the Saudi prince and highlighted the promise of billionaire investments in Brazil.
“An objective example of this work is the agreement with the Saudi public investment fund to explore opportunities in Brazil, with mutually beneficial investments of up to US$ 10 billion. Thank you, Prince Mohammed bin Salman”, said the president’s son.
