Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz began the Cabinet session at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah today with a briefing on the contacts made by both himself and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz with foreign leaders last week. They included a meeting between King Abdullah and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, a telephone call between the King and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and a message received by the Crown Prince from Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore.

The Cabinet reviewed the latest domestic, regional and international developments. The ministers hailed the efforts exerted by the General Authority of Civil Aviation to develop several projects, particularly the expansion of King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. The Cabinet welcomed the opening at the Louvre Museum in Paris on July 13 of the “Roads of Arabia” Exhibition, which showcases the Kingdom’s archeological treasures. It also noted the success of the Saudi Pavilion at the 17th Tokyo International Book Fair, in which the Kingdom participated as a Guest of Honor.

Turning to its weekly agenda, the Cabinet approved a memorandum of cooperation between the Saudi Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution and the Korean Office of the Attorney-General, signed on 21/03/2009; authorized the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives to sign a draft memorandum of cooperation with Bahrain’s Isa Cultural Center; approved a general cooperation agreement with Brazil, signed on 16/05/2009; approved the final documents of the World Radio Communication Conference issued by the International Telecommunications Union; and authorized the Minister of Commerce and Industry to sign a technical cooperation program in the field of standardization between the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization and the UAE Authority for Standardization and Metrology.