Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Seoul on Thursday to hold talks with President Yoon Suk-yeol and top business leaders, initiating a slew of agreements worth an estimated $30 billion between the two countries.  The crown prince’s trip to Seoul is his first in three years.  In a closed meeting held earlier in the day, Yoon and the crown prince agreed to develop bilateral relations into a “future-oriented strategic partnership” and establish a “strategic partnership committee” at the leadership level to promote cooperative projects more systemically, according to a written statement released by the presidential office.

On the sidelines of the high-level talks, a total of 26 memorandums of understanding were announced at an investment forum set up by industry ministries of both countries, even though the exact sizes of individual deals were not disclosed.  Later in the day, Saudi's Ashaaq TV reported the kingdom's investment minister as saying deals signed during the meeting were worth $30 billion.

Among them was a $7 billion petrochemicals project by S-Oil. It was the largest direct investment in Korea by Aramco, the largest shareholder of the oil refiner.

The local public-private energy consortium that comprises Korea Electric Power, Korea National Oil, Korea Southern Power, Samsung C&T and Posco signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to build a $6.5 billion green hydrogen and ammonia plant near Yanbu on Red Sea coast. PIF is the Saudi sovereign wealth fund with over $600 billion in assets.

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