Ambassador of Canada to Saudi Arabia | |
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Inaugural holder | Jacques Gilles Bruno Gignac |
Formation | June 24, 1973 |
The Canadian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in Riyadh is the official representative of the Government of Canada in Ottawa to the Government of Saudi Arabia. He is also concurrently accredited to the government in Muscat (Oman).
Foreign relations of Saudi Arabia are the diplomatic and trade relations between Saudi Arabia and other countries around the world. The foreign policy of Saudi Arabia is focused on co-operation with the oil-exporting Gulf States, the unity of the Arab World, Islamic solidarity, and support for the United Nations. In practice, the main concerns in recent years have been relations with the US, the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Iraq, the perceived threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the effect of oil pricing. Saudi Arabia contributes large amounts of development aid to Muslim countries. From 1986 to 2006, the country donated £49 billion in aid.
The foreign relations of Yemen are the relationships and policies that Yemen maintains with other countries. It is a member of the United Nations, the Arab League, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Yemen participates in the nonaligned movement. The Republic of Yemen accepted responsibility for all treaties and debts of its predecessors, the YAR and the PDRY. Additionally, Yemen acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has stressed the need to render the Middle East region free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
Adel al-Jubeir is a Saudi diplomat serving as the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs since 2018. He also serves as a Member of the Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia and has been the Climate Affairs Envoy since 2022. Notably, he is the second non-royal to hold the office of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, succeeding Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al Suwaiyel. Previously, al-Jubeir was the Saudi Ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2015 and a foreign policy advisor to King Abdullah.
Canada and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have had a generally cordial relationship marred by periods of diplomatic tension. Both countries, however, share robust economic ties: Saudi Arabia is Canada's largest trading partner in the Middle East, and is also one of the largest recipients of Canadian military equipment. In February 2014, the Saudi government had purchased Canadian armaments worth CA$15 billion in total. Until August 2018, there were over 16,000 Saudi students enrolled in Canadian schools on government scholarships.
Digital diplomacy, also referred to as Digiplomacy and eDiplomacy, has been defined as the use of the Internet and new information communication technologies to help achieve diplomatic objectives. However, other definitions have also been proposed. The definition focuses on the interplay between internet and diplomacy, ranging from Internet driven-changes in the environment in which diplomacy is conducted to the emergence of new topics on diplomatic agendas such as cybersecurity, privacy and more, along with the use of internet tools to practice diplomacy.
The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) is a Saudi Arabian human rights organisation closely associated with and funded by the Saudi government. It was established on 10 March 2004 ; two years after the Human Rights First Society applied unsuccessfully for a licence. As of August 2018, the President of the NSHR was Mufleh bin Rabayan al-Qahtani.
The State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have never had formal diplomatic relations. In 1947, Saudi Arabia voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, and currently does not recognize Israeli sovereignty. However, as of 2023, bilateral negotiations towards Israeli–Saudi normalization are ongoing, with the United States serving as the two sides' mediator.
Saudi Arabia–Syria relations refer to bilateral and economic relations between Saudi Arabia and the Syrian Arab Republic. Diplomatic ties between these two countries of the Middle East have long been strained by the major events in the region. Saudi Arabia has an embassy in Damascus, and Syria has an embassy in Riyadh. Both countries are members of the Arab League and share close cultural ties.
Kuwait and Iran have longstanding historical ties spanning hundreds of years, particularly in the pre-oil era. Relations were negatively influenced by the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s. Relations improved after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Canada and Qatar enjoyed friendly relations and coordination on the international field, long before Qatar's Embassy opened in Ottawa in 2011, including their joint military collaboration during the Gulf War and in the international intervention in Libya. Diplomatic relations between the two nations were established in 1974.
The Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Tehran is the diplomatic mission of Saudi Arabia in Iran.
The 2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran was a mob action on 2 January 2016 by protesters demonstrating against the execution of prominent Saudi Arabian Shi'a cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Mobs stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the Saudi consulate in Mashhad and ransacked them. The embassy building was set on fire with Molotov cocktails and petrol bombs. During the attacks, the police arrived and dispersed protesters from the embassy premises and extinguished the fire.
The Qatar diplomatic crisis was a high-profile incident involving the deterioration of ties between Qatar and the Arab League between 2017 and 2021. It began when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt simultaneously severed their bilateral relations with Qatar and subsequently banned Qatar-registered aircraft and Qatari ships from utilizing their sovereign territory by air, land, and sea; this involved the Saudis' closure of Qatar's only land crossing, initiating a de facto blockade of the country. Tensions between the two sides came to a close in January 2021, following a resolution between the Saudis and the Qataris.
Jean-Philippe Linteau is a Canadian diplomat. In May 2023, he became Canada's first Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in five years following the normalisation of diplomatic relations between the two countries. He was formerly the Canadian Consul General to the United Arab Emirates.
Nayef bin Bandar Al Sudairi is a Saudi Arabian diplomat. He was the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Canada between 2014 and 2018. He is the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Jordan. In addition, he was appointed non-resident ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the State of Palestine and consul-general in Jerusalem on 13 August 2023.