Saudi Arabia has proposed hosting a key meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Riyadh in 2028, as the kingdom seeks to elevate its international profile.
The proposal to host the 15th Ministerial Conference, the biennial gathering of the world's ministers representing the WTO’s highest decision-making body, was listed on the agenda of a WTO general council meeting held in Geneva on December 16-17.
Saudi Arabia’s Commerce Minister Majid Al Qassabi had first raised the idea on October 22.
“Hosting MC15 represents a strategic opportunity to demonstrate our deep commitment to the principles and objectives of the WTO and the multilateral trading system,” he said.
Joost Pauwelyn, professor of international law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, said this move could be big, especially if a “genuine reform process is kicked off” in Cameroon next March.
“Real results may then be harvested in Riyadh. It would demonstrate Saudi Arabia’s commitment to rules-based trade at a time that others, especially the US, have given up on the WTO playing a central role,” he said.
“There is also a risk: hosting an organisation that is losing centrality, with meagre results that come out.”
The WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference will be hosted in Cameroon's capital Yaounde from March 26 to 29 in 2026. A final decision on the host for MC15 will likely be taken by consensus ahead of that gathering.
The 13th Ministerial Conference of the trade body was held in Abu Dhabi last year.
Hosting two consecutive WTO ministerial meetings in the Gulf signals that the region is no longer just an energy supplier but a rising hub for global trade diplomacy, according to Nicolas Michelon, managing partner at Dubai-based corporate geopolitics consultancy Alagan Partners.
For Saudi Arabia, it would align with other major hosting duties, such as the 2030 World Expo and the 2034 FIFA World Cup, supporting its goal to position the kingdom as a global gateway, h
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