{"id":4143,"date":"2018-11-08T06:43:22","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T06:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/duke-of-york-keep-engaging-with-saudis\/"},"modified":"2018-11-08T06:43:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T06:43:22","slug":"duke-of-york-keep-engaging-with-saudis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/duke-of-york-keep-engaging-with-saudis\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke of York: Keep &#8216;engaging&#8217; with Saudis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Duke of York addresses Pitch@Palace event in 2016\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/7E9C\/production\/_104221423_pitchevent2016getty.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">The Duke of York has said his initiative to support entrepreneurs should continue &#8220;engaging&#8221; with Saudi Arabia, despite the killing last month of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.<\/p>\n<p>Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi rulers, was killed inside the country&#8217;s consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. <\/p>\n<p>The Duke said the journalist&#8217;s death was an &#8220;awful state of affairs&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>But he added Pitch@Palace should not stop &#8220;encouraging and supporting, starting and growing businesses&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>He told the BBC young Saudis should not &#8220;take the blame for something that they had nothing to do with&#8221;. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-45812399\" class=\"story-body__link\">Jamal Khashoggi: All you need to know<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-45944854\" class=\"story-body__link\">Saudi Summit begins amid boycott<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-middle-east-45861708\" class=\"story-body__link\">Why Saudi Arabia matters to the West<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Prince Andrew was talking to Radio 4&#8217;s Today programme ahead of the latest round of his Pitch@Palace initiative.<\/p>\n<p>The not-for-profit organisation, which he established in 2014, gives budding entrepreneurs the chance to &#8220;pitch&#8221; to an audience of professionals who could become their mentors, distributors or investors and help them to expand their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>The events take place twice a year and Thursday&#8217;s will see 42 entrepreneurs from around the UK coming together at Buckingham Palace to pitch to a room full of top investors and other businesspeople. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Great success&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Pitch@Palace Global holds similar events for entrepreneurs in various countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s sometimes considered quite a difficult market to enter but they were the first country to ask us to take Pitch outside the UK, and we went in 2015 and it was a great success,&#8221; the Duke told business presenter, Dominic O&#8217;Connell.<\/p>\n<p>The Duke said Khashoggi&#8217;s killing last month was an &#8220;absolutely awful state of affairs and how and what and why is beyond my knowledge and ability to answer&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>However, he added: &#8220;Do I think that we should be engaging with Saudi Arabia? <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From a Pitch perspective and Pitch alone, I do not believe that we should stop for one moment encouraging and supporting starting and growing businesses. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They need to diversify their economy, they&#8217;ve got a very young population that is growing and needing things to do and so if we are just one of a whole range of activities that are going on, then  I think that they shouldn&#8217;t necessarily take the blame for something that they had nothing to do with.&#8221; <\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                 <span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">PA<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    The Duke of York was made chancellor of Huddersfield University in 2015<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-leeds-46047165\" class=\"story-body__link\">University of Huddersfield students called for the Duke&#8217;s resignation<\/a> as Chancellor after he spoke about forging further links with Saudi Arabia via Pitch@Palace.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Appalling record&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Saudi Arabia admits Mr Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul last month, but its accounts of what happened have changed several times. <\/p>\n<p>When he first disappeared, it said Khashoggi had walked out of the building alive. It later admitted he had been murdered, saying the killing was premeditated and a result of a &#8220;rogue operation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Turkish investigators believe he was choked to death and then dismembered.<\/p>\n<p>His death prompted many western top executives and politicians, including the UK&#8217;s international trade secretary Liam Fox, to pull out of a Saudi summit aimed at attracting investment to the Kingdom. <\/p>\n<p>Reacting to the Duke&#8217;s interview with the BBC, Amnesty International said it hoped he was &#8220;re-appraising his entire relationship with Saudi Arabia&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Peter Frankental, the organisation&#8217;s UK economic relations programme director, said no-one could be &#8220;under any illusions about Saudi Arabia&#8217;s appalling human rights record&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All business figures need to be aware that their dealings with Saudi Arabia may taint them with human rights violations, especially if they receive investments that arise from such violations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Different way&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>The Duke of York was the UK&#8217;s &#8220;special representative&#8221; for trade and investment from 2001 until he stepped down in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>As UK trade envoy his remit was to promote UK business interests abroad.<\/p>\n<p>He was asked why he chose to stand down from that role: &#8220;The decision here at Buckingham Palace was that every member of the family should be helping in the trade relationship[s] around the world.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I still do support the UK in every way that I did previously but we all do it now and we do it in a slightly different way,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46131305\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images The Duke of York has said his initiative to support entrepreneurs should continue &#8220;engaging&#8221; with Saudi Arabia, despite the killing last month of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi rulers, was killed inside the country&#8217;s consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. The Duke said the journalist&#8217;s death was an &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}