Arabian prince seeks deals, allies in Asia tourhome/News/World/Arabian prince seeks deals, allies in Asia tourISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince arrives in Pakistan on Sunday, the start of an Asian tour during which he will seek lucrative contracts and demonstrate he still has allies, five months after the Khashoggi affair. After Pakistan, MBS will travel to India, where he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The Asia trip comes five months after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a fierce critic of MBS, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul ignited a diplomatic crisis. He “wants to demonstrate that he is not an international pariah,” said James Dorsey, a researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Saudi Arabia is also making strategic adjustments, and Asia is the new main direction of Saudi diplomacy,” he said.

Source: Manila Times February 17, 2019 16:40 UTC