Saudi crown prince to visit Greece to sign energy, telecoms deals

[Akritas]

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit Greece on July 26 to meet Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek foreign ministry said on Friday, in his first visit to an EU country since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The ministry said the pair were due to sign bilateral deals, without giving details. A Greek diplomatic source said the deals were in the fields of energy, military cooperation, and an undersea data cable, among others.

The "East to Med data Corridor", an undersea and land data cable, will be developed by MENA HUB, owned by Saudi Arabia's STC and Greek telecoms and satellite applications company TTSA.

Greece's power utility Public Power Company (PPC) and Cyprus' telecoms operator CYTA, will also hold a stake in the project, pending final corporate approvals

Cable project is to launch in autumn and be completed by the end of 2025.

Another person close to the deal said the cable, which will connect users from Italy to Singapore, will cost about 800 million euros ($857.68 million).

Greece's conservative government has made digital transformation a priority since taking office in 2019, a year after Greece exited the biggest financial bailout in history.

Saudi crown prince to visit Greece to sign energy, telecoms deals

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit Greece on July 26 to meet Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek foreign ministry said on Friday, in his first visit to an EU country since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

www.reuters.com

 

[Akritas]

Agreements worth almost 4 billion euros for energy and the development of an undersea cable data transmission system were signed during the visit of the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to Greece.

Among the agreements is the establishment of a €1 billion (SAR 3.75 billion) joint venture to develop an undersea cable data transmission system that will connect Europe to Asia via Greece and Saudi Arabia, the so-called East to Med data Corridor (project EMC). The project will consolidate Greece's position as a telecommunications gateway to Europe, while also strengthening Saudi Arabia's efforts to build its digital economy.

Another very important deal, worth €2.6 billion (SAR 10 billion), is in the energy sector and covers both conventional and renewable energy sources. The agreement will link Saudi Arabia's energy expertise with Greece's role as an energy hub for the wider region.

The remaining agreements, which were signed on July 27 at the Greece - Saudi Business Meeting co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Hellenic Company for Investments and Foreign Trade (Enterprise Greece), include bilateral business partnerships in the fields of aviation, maritime transport, aquaculture, waste management, culture, food and agricultural products, construction and defense technology

Ελλάδα-Σαουδική Αραβία: Ποιες είναι οι συμφωνίες 4 δισ. ευρώ που υπογράφηκαν

Συμφωνίες σχεδόν 4 δισ. ευρώ για την ενέργεια και την ανάπτυξη υποθαλάσσιου καλωδιακού συστήματος μεταφοράς δεδομένων υπεγράφησαν κατά την επίσκεψη του πρίγκιπα διαδόχου του Βασιλείου της Σαουδικής Αραβίας Μοχάμεντ μπιν Σάλμαν μπιν Αμπντουλαζίζ Αλ Σαούντ στην Ελλάδα.

www.naftemporiki.gr

 

[Akritas]

Saudis and the cable of 850 million euros (EMC Project)

The main feature of the new cable is that it passes through Saudi Arabia for the first time, while until today all existing cables pass through Egypt, mainly through Suez, ending in Marseille. Apart from the fact that this is a strategically alternative route that will significantly reduce the time delay in data transfer, giving access to faster, safer and cheaper Internet, it also makes Greece a data transfer hub.

EMC Project achieves the following objectives:

• First, it reinforces Saudi Arabia's vision for 2030 and the vision of Greece 2.0, turning Saudi Arabia into a "regional digital hub" and positioning Greece as the "eastern data gateway of the European Union", between Europe and the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
• Second, it creates a dominant, upgraded digital infrastructure for all three countries – including Cyprus – which is the cornerstone of the digital transformation era.
• Third, it allows Saudi Arabia, Cyprus and Greece to take advantage of their geographic location by connecting them with a new state-of-the-art data corridor, placing all three countries at the center of data transfer, storage and creation in Eurasia.
• Fourth, it meets all the requirements and criteria for establishing national security and cyber security.
• Fifth, upon completion, EMC will move data much faster, more securely, and with much less latency than existing previous-generation infrastructures.

All of the above work in a context of "submarine cable diplomacy", which is of key importance and contributes to the formation of new geopolitical data, particularly beneficial for the Greece.

Οι Αραβες και το καλώδιο των 850 εκατομμυρίων

Το παρασκήνιο της συμφωνίας που θα επιτρέψει στην Ελλάδα να μετατραπεί σε διαδικτυακή πύλη της Ευρώπης προς την Ασία.

www.kathimerini.gr