In the seven years that Saudi Arabia has hosted its flagship investment conference, dubbed “Davos in the Desert,” Prince Mohammed bin Salman has expended energy on lowering the geopolitical temperature in the region. He’s resolved disputes with Qatar, minimized tensions with Iran, rowed back on his invasion of Yemen—all to focus on his primary goal: economic growth and economic diversification.
His driving hope, explains Saudi bureau chief Matthew Martin, is that the more prosperous Saudi Arabia and the region become, the more likely political feuds that have long plagued the region will “melt into the distance.” But the war between Israel and Hamas, Martin says, has shown that deep fissures in the region remain, and that “this dream of putting prosperity ahead of political rights is a very difficult one to achieve.”
Martin joins this week’s episode of In the City and host Francine Lacqua, on location at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, along with hosts David Merritt and Allegra Stratton in London. They discuss what’s happening at the event, especially among financial titans in attendance such as BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio and JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon. They also analyze the struggle to get investment into Saudi’s diversification agenda, and whether normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel is just paused—or off the table entirely.
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