This international cooperation is working against the illegal trade in antiquities that threatens the heritage of all of us.
We have the opportunity to bring here to Saudi Arabia some of the United States government experts who do this very important work on behalf of our government from agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice.
We are very happy that we have the opportunity to bring these experts together under the sponsorship of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, so that we can learn to work together and share our expertise.
As are so many things in today’s world, cooperation is key to this, both between governments, and within governments. I was very impressed, Your Royal Highness (Prince Sultan bin Salman Al Saud), as we were coming in, when we met some of your colleagues, I counted at least five or six Saudi government organizations that they represented. And I think that demonstrates Saudi leadership clearly understands how complicated and important this work is.
Bringing together many experts from our government with the experts from your government to strengthen this important work is another example of how broad and strong the overall relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is.
The U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia continues to move forward in a strong way and I’m very happy that we can play a part in that here today.
