Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Mohammad al-Jadaan said that the Kingdom’s banking sector is “very strong” and there are no challenges to liquidity in the sector, in an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya, Trend reports citing Al Arabiya.
He added that investments are up in the country by 19 percent in the first nine months of 2022.
Al-Jadaan also added that the Kingdom “should not be blamed” for protecting its interests and the interests of its people, in a televised interview with Al-Arabiya.
He made the comment when asked about a recent remark by US secretary of state Anthony Blinken about the relationship between the two countries needing “recalibration.”
Al-Jadaan also said Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the US is strategic and decades-long and that relations are ongoing.
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US said in a TV interview that reviewing bilateral relations between Riyadh and Washington was a “positive thing,” while responding to recent comments by the Biden administration that it wanted to reevaluate the relationship in the aftermath of the OPEC+ decision to cut oil output.
Saudi Arabia has maintained that the OPEC+ decision to cut output was collective and vote based, and for economic purposes.
Ties between the US and Saudi Arabia have been unstable since the Biden administration took office in 2021 and made several foreign policy moves. These included the immediate freeze on US arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, removing the Iran-backed Houthis from the terror blacklist and trying to revive the now-defunct Iran nuclear deal.