Saudi Arabia Underlines Commitment to Responsible Mineral Sourcing at Paris Peace Forum

16:29-9 November 2025 AD ـ 18 Jumada Al-Ula 1447 AH

Saudi Arabia Underlines Commitment to Responsible Mineral Sourcing at Paris Peace Forum

The Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources reaffirmed the Kingdom’s commitment to responsible mineral sourcing and sustainable resource governance at the 8th Paris Peace Forum, held at the Palais de Chaillot under the theme “New Coalitions for Peace, People, and the Planet.”

Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources for Mining Development Eng. Turki Al-Babtain represented the ministry in a high-level panel session titled “Security vs. Sustainability: The Hidden Costs of a Geopolitical Race for Minerals.” The panel featured President of the National Assembly of Serbia Ana Brnabić and former European Union Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson.

Al-Babtain emphasized that advancement in the mineral sector requires collaboration rather than competition, said a Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources statement on Sunday.

“The world’s energy transition depends on a coordinated global effort,” he added. “The world today faces not only a shortage of minerals but also a shortage of coordination. To avoid fragmentation and ensure stability, we must build a new compact of collaboration — one that links transparency, finance, and technology under shared responsibility.”

Saudi Arabia’s mining transformation under Vision 2030 seeks to balance economic diversification with environmental and social responsibility, he went on to say. The Kingdom is unlocking an estimated $2.5 trillion in mineral resources through the Regional Geological Survey Program, one of the region’s most extensive geochemical and geophysical mapping efforts of the Arabian Shield, covering 600,000 square kilometers.

To date, more than 33,000 square kilometers have been tendered for exploration, with an estimated 50,000 square kilometers of mineralized investment opportunity expected by 2025.

Al-Babtain stated that the transformation is guided by a reformed Mining Investment Law that enforces strict ESG standards, mandates community engagement, and requires comprehensive environmental rehabilitation by investors.

These measures, along with other competitive incentives, have attracted leading global mining companies, including Ivanhoe Electric, Vedanta, Hancock Prospecting, Zijin Mining, Discovery Group, and Kuya Silver, into the Kingdom’s mining sector, he stressed.

The sector has witnessed significant growth in exploration spending, which increased from $133.5 million in 2023 to $280.5 million in 2024. The number of active mining companies also rose from six in 2020 to 226 in 2024.

Al-Babtain highlighted the Future Minerals Forum (FMF), hosted annually in Riyadh, as one of Saudi Arabia’s key platforms for advancing global cooperation in the minerals sector. The forum convenes over 90 senior government officials from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas to promote responsible mineral development, strengthen supply chains, and foster dialogue on policy and sustainability.

He noted that the FMF and its government-led Ministerial Roundtable have advanced three flagship initiatives: establishing a network of Centers of Excellence across Africa and Asia to drive capacity-building, developing harmonized regulatory frameworks, and enhancing sustainable investment in critical minerals.

Milei Cheers Economic Benefits of Iran War for Argentina

President Javier Milei of Argentina was in New York participating in an investment promotion event. Angela Weiss / AFP

Asharq Al Awsat

07:37-10 March 2026 AD ـ 21 Ramadan 1447 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

07:37-10 March 2026 AD ـ 21 Ramadan 1447 AH

Milei Cheers Economic Benefits of Iran War for Argentina

President Javier Milei of Argentina was in New York participating in an investment promotion event. Angela Weiss / AFP

Argentine President Javier Milei, a staunch ally of US President Donald Trump and Israel, on Monday hailed the benefits of the Iran war for his country's exports and foreign currency reserves.

The libertarian Milei, who has backed Washington and Israel's strikes on Iran, said he expected an "improvement" in oil and agricultural exports as a result of the 10-day-old conflict, said AFP.

Oil soared past $100 a barrel for the first time in four years on Monday, as Iran fired a new barrage of missiles at its US-allied oil-rich Gulf neighbors and signalled that the Strait of Hormuz would likely remain shut.

Argentina is Latin America's fourth-largest oil producer.

"Argentina, in this context, will see an improvement in its terms of trade because oil prices are rising, and Argentina is a net exporter," Milei told Argentine radio station FM NOW.

"Furthermore, all the grains that Argentina exports, soybeans, corn, and sunflower, are also rising in price," Milei said in an interview from New York, where he was participating in an investment promotion event.

Last week, wheat reached its highest level in a year and soybeans hit their highest point since June 2014 as the war drove up energy and fertilizer costs.

Milei emphasized that the war would boost Argentina's efforts to build up its foreign currency reserves, as demanded by the International Monetary Fund in return for a new $20 billion loan agreement signed last year.

The oil and gas sector accounts for 13.5 percent of Argentina's exports, second behind the agricultural sector, which accounts for more than 60 percent of foreign sales.

Soybeans amount to 24.6 percent of total exports.

Business

China Starts Year with Booming Trade, Despite US Exports Drop

People visit a clothes shop in Beijing on March 9, 2026. (AFP)

07:13-10 March 2026 AD ـ 21 Ramadan 1447 AH

China Starts Year with Booming Trade, Despite US Exports Drop

People visit a clothes shop in Beijing on March 9, 2026. (AFP)

China's trade surged by a fifth in the first two months of the year, official data showed Tuesday, significantly outpacing forecasts as a plunge in shipments to the United States was offset by sales to other major markets.

The boost is a lifeline for the world's second-largest economy as domestic consumer activity has slumped, and adds to the record surplus achieved last year.

Official figures for the first two months of the year -- usually combined to account for distortions arising from the varying Lunar New Year holiday -- showed a strong start to 2026, before war broke out in the Middle East.

Exports climbed 21.8 percent year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs said, beating the 7.2 percent predicted in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

"Exports are likely to remain robust given the recent decline in US tariffs and strong demand for semiconductors," said Zichun Huang of Capital Economics.

Many of China's key trading partners have increasingly called on Beijing to reduce its soaring trade surplus owing to its impact on local competition.

Globally, China saw significant increases in exports of products including automobiles, clothing and household appliances during the two-month period, the customs data showed.

The reading comes as Chinese leaders gather for a closely watched annual political meeting, which last week saw the government announce its lowest economic growth target in decades.

Among the challenges is a years-long slump in domestic spending, which has failed to recover since the end of the pandemic.

But in a sign of rebounding activity, the latest figures showed imports soared 19.8 percent in January-February, smashing the seven percent estimated in the Bloomberg survey.

- Oil imports surge -

The jump follows official data on Monday that revealed consumer prices rose last month at their fastest pace in three years.

Exports to the United States sank 11.0 percent, however, as President Donald Trump pressed ahead with his tariff campaign.

Beijing and Washington were locked in a blistering trade war last year -- which at one point saw reciprocal levies in the triple digits.

There are hopes that tensions could cool, with Trump set to travel to China at the end of the month.

Shipments to the United States totaled $67.24 billion in January-February, the figures showed, compared with $75.56 billion in the same period last year.

That was offset, though, by exports to the European Union surging 27.8 percent, while those to ASEAN climbed 29.2 percent.

However, "events in the Middle East will increase China's oil import bill but weigh on its import volumes", Huang said in a note.

Worries about the global economy have intensified this month after the US-Israel war on Iran sent oil prices soaring to their highest since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The conflict has seen the crucial Strait of Hormuz -- through which a fifth of global oil travels -- effectively shut off.

With tensions already rising last month, imports of oil by China -- the world's largest importer of the commodity -- jumped 16 percent in January-February combined, the customs data showed Tuesday.

The strong export growth will likely "reinforce" the argument of trading partners concerned about China's ballooning trade imbalance, wrote Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist of Pinpoint Asset Management.

Commerce minister Wang Wentao acknowledged that China's trade needed balancing when he spoke at a news event Friday on the sidelines of the "Two Sessions" political meeting in Beijing.

"Exports and imports are like the two wheels of a vehicle. If they are balanced, the vehicle runs smoothly and goes further," Wang said.

Pinpoint's Zhang added that strong exports and a lower official growth target "suggest that China is unlikely to launch stimulus any time soon".

Business

Crude Plunges, Stocks Rally as Trump Says War 'Pretty Much' Complete

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - MARCH 02: A sign displays prices for gasoline at a station on March 02, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Asharq Al Awsat

05:58-10 March 2026 AD ـ 21 Ramadan 1447 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

05:58-10 March 2026 AD ـ 21 Ramadan 1447 AH

Crude Plunges, Stocks Rally as Trump Says War 'Pretty Much' Complete

Oil prices tanked and equities rallied Tuesday following a wild day of swings that came after Donald Trump said the US-Israel war on Iran would be ending earlier than thought.

As the crisis in the crude-rich Middle East continued into a second week, with seemingly little sign of a conclusion on the horizon, the US president said that the campaign was far ahead of his initial timeline of around a month, AFP said.

"I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they've got no air force," Trump told CBS News by phone.

"If you look, they have nothing left. There's nothing left in a military sense," he added.

Trump told the US broadcaster that the United States was "very far" ahead of his initially stated war time frame of four or five weeks.

He later told a news conference in Florida that "it's going to be ended soon, and if it starts up again they'll be hit even harder".

When asked if he thought the war could end in days or weeks, he replied: "I think soon. Very soon."

The US leader also threatened an attack of "incalculable" size if Tehran blocks oil supplies coming through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global supplies pass.

His remarks come just days after he issued a statement saying Iran's "unconditional surrender" was the only acceptable outcome for ending the war, which sent shivers through markets fearing an elongated war.

Still, Iran's Revolutionary Guards responded by saying that they, not the Americans, would "determine the end of the war".

Investors jumped on the comments, sending crude prices plunging around 10 percent Tuesday.

That came a day after extreme swings that saw the commodity rocket 30 percent to a peak above $119 a barrel before plunging to as low as $84.

The recovery had already begun earlier Monday after it emerged that finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations would discuss tapping stockpiles to ease supply constraints.

Trump also said he would waive some Ukraine war-linked sanctions on Russian oil sales to India, with White House officials reassuring G7 partners that the move would only be temporary.

And Asian stock markets rallied, with Seoul up more than six percent and Tokyo gaining more than three percent. There were also healthy advances in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Wellington, Taipei, Manila and Jakarta.

That came after all three main indexes on Wall Street ended sharply higher, having reversed early heavy selling.

Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts focused Monday on the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked to nearly all oil tankers.

French President Emmanuel Macron said France was working with allies on a "purely defensive" mission to reopen the waterway.

About 10 vessels in or near the Strait of Hormuz have come under attack since Iran blocked the strait in retaliation for the US-Israeli strikes, shipping experts say.

Global shipping giant MSC announced it was formally halting some export shipments from the Gulf, while Bahrain's state-owned energy company Bapco joined counterparts in Qatar and Kuwait in declaring "force majeure" -- a warning that events beyond its control may lead it to miss export targets.

The Saudi defense ministry said Monday it had thwarted a drone attack targeting an oil field in the kingdom's east, near the Emirati border.

"It has been an incredibly wild ride for traders and investors to navigate the price action put to them over the past 24 hours, with breathtaking reversals taking place across many parts of the financial markets," Chris Weston, an analyst at Pepperstone.

"The pressure valve has clearly been released for now. However, volatility across energy markets remains exceptionally elevated.

"While the most extreme stress has eased, markets are still pricing a significant degree of uncertainty and risk.

"The geopolitical backdrop remains fluid, and traders should expect volatility to remain a defining feature of the trading environment in the days ahead."

Saudi Arabia Underlines Commitment to Responsible Mineral Sourcing at Paris Peace Forum