Please try another search
BERLIN (Reuters) - Siemens (DE:SIEGn) boss Joe Kaeser came under pressure from senior German politicians on Sunday to pull out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia next week following Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death.
Many business executives including the heads of Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn), Uber Technologies and Siemens rival ABB (S:ABBN) have dropped out of Riyadh's Future Investment Initiative conference amid outrage about Khashoggi's fate.
The leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), Andrea Nahles, called on Kaeser to follow the example of other executives and cancel his plans to attend the conference.
"I hope that Joe Kaeser will rethink this," she told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, also from the SPD, told German public television on Saturday evening that cancellations sent the right signal.
"I certainly wouldn't participate in an event in Riyadh at the moment," he said. "And I have great understanding for those who have cancelled."
Norbert Roettgen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union who chairs the German parliamentary foreign affairs committee, also urged Kaeser to skip the event.
"This applies in my view, for example, to the Siemens CEO who has confirmed his attendance," he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
A spokesman for Siemens said Kaeser had not yet decided whether to attend the conference. He said he expected Kaeser to make a decision on Sunday.
The engineering conglomerate has won orders to supply gas turbines, power plant components and trains to Saudi Arabia. Last year, it signed a declaration of intent to work with Saudi authorities to equip infrastructure projects which Siemens said could be worth at least a billion euros.
Merkel and Maas have reacted strongly to Saudi Arabia's admission that Khashoggi died in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, condemning the killing and demanding Riyadh make clear what happened.
($1 = 0.8686 euros)
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.