Top German politicians press Siemens boss to skip Saudi conference
Siemens boss Joe Kaeser came under pressure from senior German
politicians on Sunday to pull out of an investment conference in Saudi
Arabia next week following Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death.
Many business executives including the heads of Deutsche Bank, Uber
Technologies and Siemens rival ABB have dropped out of Riyadh’s Future
Investment Initiative conference amid outrage about Khashoggi’s fate.
The leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), Andrea Nahles, called on
Kaeser to follow the example of other executives and cancel his plans to
attend the conference.
“I hope that Joe Kaeser will rethink this,” she told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, also from the SPD, told German public
television on Saturday evening that cancellations sent the right signal.
“I certainly wouldn’t participate in an event in Riyadh at the moment,”
he said. “And I have great understanding for those who have cancelled.”
Norbert Roettgen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian
Democratic Union who chairs the German parliamentary foreign affairs
committee, also urged Kaeser to skip the event.
“This applies in my view, for example, to the Siemens CEO who has
confirmed his attendance,” he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
A spokesman for Siemens said Kaeser had not yet decided whether to
attend the conference. He said he expected Kaeser to make a decision on
Sunday.
The engineering conglomerate has won orders to supply gas turbines,
power plant components and trains to Saudi Arabia. Last year, it signed a
declaration of intent to work with Saudi authorities to equip
infrastructure projects which Siemens said could be worth at least a
billion euros.
Merkel and Maas have reacted strongly to Saudi Arabia’s admission that
Khashoggi died in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, condemning the
killing and demanding Riyadh make clear what happened.
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