Nearly five years after Riyadh downgraded ties with Ottawa over criticism of the kingdom’s human rights record, Saudi Arabia and Canada have agreed to restore full diplomatic ties.
Riyadh has moved toward reconciliation after a series of proposals by Saudi Arabia to resolve a dispute that marked the first years of daily ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power, as Riyadh now focuses on its economic reform program and attracting foreign investment .
In 2018, the Canadian embassy in Riyadh sparked a feud with Ottawa after it criticized the detention of activists on Twitter in Arabic.
Saudi Arabia froze a trade deal with Canada, withdrew its ambassador and banned the return of the Canadian ambassador, who was on a business trip at the time. Saudi Arabia also canceled a scholarship program under which thousands of students enrolled at Canadian universities.
In similar statements on Wednesday, the foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia and Canada said both sides wanted to “restore diplomatic relations between the two countries based on mutual respect and shared interests.”
It was unclear whether Ottawa would downplay criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, but Dennis Horak, who was Canada’s ambassador at the time of the row, told CBC that “you can walk and chew gum.”
Prince Mohammed has been welcomed by young Saudis for pushing social reforms that end religious police control of public life, but the measures have been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent.
The row with Canada was widely seen at the time as yet another erratic outburst by Prince Mohammed, who led a military intervention against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen and a regional boycott of Qatar. He also detained Lebanon’s prime minister and forced him to resign live.
Months after the dispute with Canada, Saudi Arabian commentator Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which the CIA later concluded Prince Mohammed was responsible for. He denies involvement, but the killings have seen the crown prince shunned by Western capital.
The kingdom has won praise from Washington in recent months for trying to turn around its image as a regional troublemaker by fomenting an end to the war in Yemen, restoring ties with archrival Iran and leading Sudan’s ceasefire efforts with the United States. Riyadh has also pushed for a campaign to normalize regional relations with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
Horak said it was “time” for Saudi Arabia and Canada to resume relations, CBC reported. “They’re an important player and they’re hard to ignore,” he told the CBC. “And I think having full diplomatic relations with them allows us to have our voice heard at the top, which is important in Saudi Arabia.”