This Kingdom has come a long way since 2017

My first visit to Saudi Arabia was in May 2017, when Donald Trump made his inaugural foreign trip as US president to the Kingdom, Israel and the Vatican. In the weeks before the trip my colleagues and I met various Saudi officials to plan all the details. They (and we) were excited that Trump’s first stop would be in Saudi Arabia.

I was a bit nervous. My impression of the Kingdom was shaped by the memories of 9/11 and the often negative coverage in the media. It didn’t help when one of my colleagues from the State Department visited me at the White House to fill out my visa form for the trip. When I wrote “Jewish” in the “Other” box for religion, he frowned and told me to fill out a new form and to leave that part out. I refused. There were no issues.

I flew out ahead of Trump, missing my first assigned trip on Air Force One because the delegation was flying on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. I do not travel on Shabbat. I landed in Riyadh late on Thursday night. I was met by a US foreign service officer who had thoughtfully brought kosher rations from a US army base in the Kingdom so that I would have kosher food to eat.

During Trump’s visit I began to get a small hint of what was to come. Government officials signaled that a new, positive wind was blowing.

Jason D. Greenblatt

Friday, the day before Trump’s arrival, was a dull day. Although I was staying in an extremely luxurious hotel — the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh — few in the Kingdom worked on Friday so there were no government meetings scheduled for me. All the shops were closed, and the streets then were not enticing to walk around. There were few museums or sites to visit, and those that did exist were also closed. I did manage to find a Starbucks and went in through the men’s entrance. At the time, most public places had separate entrances for men, women and families. In Riyadh, I saw men driving, but not one woman. Hardly any women were walking around at all, and those who were had a male escort. The streets were quiet, eerily so.

During Trump’s visit I began to get a small hint of what was to come. Government officials signaled that a new, positive wind was blowing. After that trip, and over the course of nearly three years, I met King Salman and had many meetings with Saudi government officials and of course the rising star, Mohammed bin Salman, who became crown prince in 2017.

Meetings with the crown prince were always remarkable. He was a man with a plan. His energy level was off the charts. His optimism and plans for the country were thrilling. Vision 2030, a massive economic and social plan to change the trajectory of the Kingdom and wean the country away from oil revenue, was breathtaking. In meeting after meeting over the course of those three years I heard firsthand where he wanted to steer the Kingdom: stamping out corruption; returning to a version of moderate Islam that was present in the Kingdom long before I ever set foot there; lifting restrictions on women in Saudi society, including allowing them to drive and encouraging them to participate in the workforce; changing the curriculum in schools; creating jobs for young people; conceiving massive developments known as “giga-projects”; creating a brand new massive entertainment sector and other significant goals were not just being described or dreamed of, but were actively being designed, planned and starting to be implemented.

There are probably few business opportunities that the Kingdom will not seek to develop in today’s Saudi Arabia.

Jason D. Greenblatt

Admittedly, at times, I scratched my head. Can they really pull these changes off, I wondered? The plans were incredible. But was Saudi society ready for these changes? And what of the giga-projects? Could he really build them? As I look at the Kingdom in 2023, I can see the answer to those questions is a resounding yes. As I see the strong, rapid, continued progress, I am almost embarrassed that I was skeptical. With each trip to the Kingdom I see societal changes I never would have imagined in 2017. Gone are the separate entrances to Starbucks, stores and other public places. Women are not just driving — my meetings with businesses and government ministries have many women actively participating and holding high-level positions. Entertainment zones abound, and not only are they slick, exciting and fun, they rival entertainment venues I see in the US. Saudis are having a blast. They aren’t just accepting the new normal, they are embracing it with zeal, taking advantage of the changes and, most importantly, asking themselves and their leaders how they can help drive these changes forward.

I was reminded of these dramatic changes this week when I went to see “Kandahar,” a new movie in which Gerard Butler plays an undercover CIA operative who sabotages an Iranian nuclear power plant and is then stranded in hostile territory in Afghanistan. He and his translator try to fight their way to an extraction point in Kandahar. Despite a poor review in The Washington Post, my family and I thought it was entertaining. But the most exciting thing for me was seeing that it was filmed in … wait for it … Saudi Arabia. There’s no mention of that in the review by The Washington Post, although the film is the first big-budget US feature to be filmed in AlUla and Jeddah. It is a fine example of what is happening in Saudi Arabia. Not only has the Kingdom rapidly succeeded in unearthing an ancient city and making significant progress in opening it to tourism and development — including several new luxury hotels and training and employing the local population, thereby stimulating the local economy — but they have now even attracted major movie producers to film there.

There are probably few business opportunities that the Kingdom will not seek to develop in today’s Saudi Arabia. Oil is in the background of course and most people recognize that the world will not soon be weaned off fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia’s vast oil wealth, after all, is what enables the Kingdom to create new, beautiful, modern, well-planned cities such as Diriyah, NEOM and others. But beyond the oil and oil-related businesses, the sky seems to be the limit. Those who continue to view the Kingdom as an ATM for investment money for businesses outside the Kingdom are completely missing the point. Those who fail to recognize the Kingdom as a new frontier to develop all kinds of business will be left behind in the desert dust.

• Jason D. Greenblatt was White House Middle East envoy in the Trump administration. He is the author of “In the Path of Abraham,” and director of Arab-Israel Diplomacy for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.