Saudi Arabia, Syria sign cooperation agreements, concessional loans

Syrian President of the Transitional Phase Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Wednesday, accompanied by a delegation that included Foreign and Expatriates Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra, Finance Minister Mohammad Yisr Barnieh, Minister of Industry and Internal Trade and Consumer Protection Basel Abdul Hanan, and General Intelligence Service Director Abdul Qader Tahan.

The delegation met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with the two sides holding talks on bilateral relations and regional and international developments. The meeting was followed by the signing of a series of agreements and memorandums of understanding.

According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) and the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the agreements included a memorandum of understanding on industrial cooperation between the two countries' ministries of industry, a cooperation agreement between their defense ministries, and two memorandums of understanding covering agriculture and environmental protection. They also included six agreements between the Saudi Fund for Development and the Syrian side to finance projects in infrastructure, healthcare, housing and financial services.

The six financing agreements are worth more than $403 million and take the form of concessional development loans rather than financial grants. They were signed on behalf of Syria by Finance Minister Mohammad Yisr Barnieh and on behalf of Saudi Arabia by Saudi Fund for Development CEO Sultan Al-Murshid.

The loans are allocated to six projects, including $90 million for the rehabilitation of generating units at the Aleppo Thermal Power Plant, $30 million to supply and install around 300,000 smart drinking water meters, and $105 million to establish, rehabilitate and equip 25 Civil Defense centers in several governorates.

The agreements also allocate $60 million to rehabilitate up to 10,000 damaged housing units, $100 million to rehabilitate and equip hospitals and healthcare centers, and more than $18 million for a digital transformation and institutional development project at Syria's Ministry of Finance.

The loans have a repayment period of 20 years, including a five-year grace period. This means the announced amounts are not free financial assistance but financing that must be repaid under the agreed terms.

The other memorandums of understanding seek to establish frameworks for cooperation between government institutions in the two countries in the fields of industry, agriculture and environmental protection. However, neither news agency published financial details concerning these memorandums, while the terms of the defense cooperation agreement and details of the obligations arising from it have not been disclosed.

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ANHA