Belgian Ambassador Geert Criel

Belgian Ambassador Geert Criel sketched out on Tuesday the excellent bilateral ties binding Saudi Arabia and Belgium, adding that the friendship goes back a long time.

“It all started with the visit of King Faisal to Brussels in the late 1970s, and King Baudouin to Riyadh in 1980,” said Criel during an interview at the Belgian Embassy inside the Diplomatic Quarter.

He noted that since then, bilateral visits had taken place between the two countries, with then Foreign Minister and now Vice Premier Didier Reynolds visiting the Kingdom last year.

Princess Astrid, younger sister of the current monarch, King Philippe, also visited the Kingdom accompanying a trade delegation.

He said that during his stint in the Kingdom he’ll try to increase the number of Saudis in various Belgian academic institutions studying either on their own or under the King Abdullah Scholarship Program.

“There are about a hundred Saudi students in various Belgian colleges and universities, many of them pursuing medical studies or taking up graduate courses in English or engineering,” he said.

He added that the number is not that big so that one of his goals as the Belgian envoy in Saudi Arabia is to encourage more Saudis to study in Belgium.

He said that the embassy issues an average of 2,800 visas per year to both students and tourists.

As far as tourists are concerned, he said that Saudi visitors request their visas from other Schengen countries. “That means that there are a lot more visitors from the Kingdom than the number of visas that we issue at the embassy,” he said.

He added that what attracts visitors to Belgium lately is “what we call as music tourism,” in which tourists are entertained in local music programs.

“We also have what is called ‘Tomorrowland’ which dishes out entertainment to the whole family — old and young alike,” he said.

Regarding bilateral trade, he said that it totaled $40 billion last year, up 10 percent from the previous year.

“Our exports to the Kingdom crossed $1.8 billion and these included pharmaceutical products, machinery, vaccines, among others,” he said.

Its imports from Saudi Arabia included petrochemical products, polyethelene, prophylene, among others.

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