UK's Middle East minister holds climate and security talks in Saudi Arabia

James Cleverly underlines importance of Riyadh Agreement in meeting with Yemen’s Foreign Minister

An image tweeted by James Cleverly as he met Saudi Arabian female entrepreneurs in Riyadh. James Cleverly/Twitter

Britain's Middle East minister has arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks on a variety of issues including climate change, security and trade.

James Cleverly also met Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awadh bin Mubarak and delivered a message from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II to Yemeni President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.

She congratulated him on Yemen's National Day and sent her best wishes to the Yemeni people, UK ambassador Michael Aron said.

Mr Cleverly described the Yemeni government’s co-operation with UN special envoy Martin Griffiths as “encouraging” and underlined the importance of the Riyadh Agreement.

Mr Cleverly visited Sabic, a chemical manufacturing company and subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, to discuss opportunities for British firms to turn "plastic waste into energy".

Sabic said it briefed Mr Cleverly on how it fostered collaboration “along the entire value chain to help extract value from plastic waste through our high-performance solutions”.

“Before Cop26, the UK is committed to supporting renewable energy growth globally,” Mr Cleverly said, referring to the UN climate summit that will be hosted in Glasgow later this year.

He later met Saudi Arabian female entrepreneurs in Riyadh.

“We spoke about their exciting ideas for developing closer ties between the UK and Saudi Arabia in tech, the arts, social development and the environment,” Mr Cleverly said.