Saudi Arabia kicks off an investment summit Tuesday despite a wave of cancellations from policymakers and business titans, but Turkey’s threat to reveal the “naked truth” over critic Jamal Khashoggi’s murder is hanging over the gathering.
The three-day Future Investment Initiative (FII) was meant to project the historically insular petro-state as a lucrative business destination as it seeks to diversify and set the stage for new ventures and multi-billion dollar contracts.
But the summit, nicknamed “Davos in the desert”, has been overshadowed by growing global outrage over the murder of Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
The chief executive of German industrial conglomerate Siemens Joe Kaeser was the latest among dozens of global executives to withdraw from the summit, hosted by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.
Ministers from the United States, Britain and France, which have huge defence deals at stake with Saudi Arabia, have already pulled out of the summit.
