Summary:

On 14 January 2025, Minister of Industry, Mining and Energy Fatma Chiboub met with her Saudi counterpart on the sidelines of the fourth annual Future Minerals Forum on mining in Riyadh. 

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The two Ministers discussed opportunities for partnerships, exchanging expertise, and collaborative projects in the mining sector. They also discussed ways to leverage the latest technologies in the sector to optimize the exploitation of natural resources. 

Days prior, the Saudi Fund for Development signed agreements to finance the construction of two regional hospitals in Sbiba, Kasserine and in El Jem, Mahdia.  

The Tunisian Minister of Health, Mostapha Al-Ferjani, said that construction will begin soon and will last for 20 months.  

Outlook: 

Saudi Arabia has financially backed Tunisia since President Kais Saied dissolved the previous Parliament and declared exceptional measures on 25 July 2021. At that time, the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs was among the first to visit Tunisia on 30 July 2021 to express support for the President’s decisions and Saudi intention to help Tunisia in its development. 

The recent agreement to finance the construction of hospitals is in line with the direction of Saudi Arabia to back Tunisia in its socio-economic projects as it did when it agreed on financing the establishment of King Salman Abdelaziz hospital in Kairouan.   

The development of the mining sector is another field of cooperation between the two countries that comes on the heels of the Saudi Development Fund agreeing to finance the revitalization of Tunisia’s rail transport network connecting its phosphate production sites. 

Soft loans and grants from Saudi Arabia are likely to help the Tunisian government achieve its stated goals including boosting phosphate production and providing improved public services. 

Saudi interest in Tunisia is a reflection of its agenda to assert itself as a regional leader in the Arab and Islamic world and press for stability, including in the Maghreb region where rival Gulf countries maintain influence, especially Qatar and Iran. 

While this support is helping Tunisia reach its economic goals, it may limit the scope of its foreign policy, potentially obliging Tunisia to align implicitly with the Saudi agenda on normalization with Israel that will likely be reintroduced during the second Trump Administration in the United States.  

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