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Research current to 11 September 2026

Faisal bin Farhan Al-SaudDiplomacy & Statecraft Archive

Diplomatic journey

An itinerary in dates and coordinates

Twelve stations in the making of a diplomat — from an embassy adviser’s desk in Washington to the rostrum of the UN General Assembly. Each station records where he went, when, in what capacity and with what documented result.

Schematic of documented travel, 2017–2026

Cities are plotted by latitude and longitude on a plain grid. No borders or territories are drawn; the lines are illustrative, not flight paths.

  1. I38.90° N · 77.04° W

    2018 – 2019 · Senior adviser

    Washington

    Posted to the Saudi embassy as senior adviser. Most sources date the posting to 2018–2019; Arab News places its start in 2017. It gave him direct working experience of the US relationship before he held any senior office.

  2. II52.52° N · 13.40° E

    10 February – October 2019 · Ambassador

    Berlin

    Appointed ambassador to Germany by royal order on 10 February 2019; credentials presented to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on 27 March 2019. The posting lasted about eight months.

    Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud in a white ghutra and black bisht, with two Saudi officials out of focus behind him, 2019
    2019. File photograph from the year of his ambassadorship. The occasion is not recorded in the supplied file, and this archive does not assume it shows the Berlin credentials ceremony.
  3. III24.71° N · 46.68° E

    23 October 2019 · Minister of Foreign Affairs

    Riyadh

    Appointed foreign minister by royal order of King Salman. His first year coincided with Saudi Arabia’s G20 presidency, under which he presided over the virtual extraordinary meeting of G20 foreign ministers on 3 September 2020.

  4. IV48.14° N · 11.58° E

    February 2020 · Munich Security Conference

    Munich

    Among his first international appearances as minister: the Munich Security Conference media library records him at the 2020 conference. He returned to Munich in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2026.

    Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud shaking hands with India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in a hotel room
    February 2020. With India’s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar. The image’s social-media identifier dates it to 15 February 2020, during the Munich Security Conference; no caption confirming the location was found.
  5. V26.61° N · 37.92° E

    5 January 2021 · GCC summit

    AlUla

    After the 41st GCC summit he held a press conference with GCC Secretary-General Nayef Al-Hajraf announcing the end of the boycott of Qatar and “a full return of diplomatic relations”, as reported by Al Arabiya.

  6. VI35.68° N · 139.69° E

    January & July 2022 · Asia

    Wuxi, Tokyo, Seoul

    He was the first foreign minister to visit China in 2022, meeting Wang Yi in Wuxi on 10 January. In July he travelled to Tokyo, where he met Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa and called on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on 19 July, and to Seoul, where President Yoon Suk Yeol received him on 20 July.

  7. VII50.45° N · 30.52° E

    26 February 2023 · Ukraine

    Kyiv

    The highest-level Saudi visit to Ukraine in about three decades. He met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and signed agreements worth US$400 million: a $300 million grant of oil products and a $100 million humanitarian programme.

  8. VIII39.90° N · 116.40° E

    April – June 2023 · Re-engagement

    Beijing, Damascus, Jeddah, Tehran

    On 6 April in Beijing he met Iran’s Hossein Amir-Abdollahian — their first formal meeting after the March agreement, which had been concluded for Saudi Arabia by the National Security Adviser. On 18 April he became the first Saudi official to visit Damascus since 2011. On 17 May in Jeddah he chaired the Arab foreign ministers’ meeting that welcomed Syria back to the Arab League. On 17 June he visited Tehran.

  9. IX55.76° N · 37.62° E

    November – December 2023 · Gaza committee

    Beijing, Moscow, London, Paris, Washington

    As chair of the ministerial committee created by the joint Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh on 11 November 2023, he led a delegation that included the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia and Palestine and the OIC Secretary-General to the capitals of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

  10. X40.75° N · 73.97° W

    September 2024 – September 2025 · United Nations

    New York

    He launched the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution on 26 September 2024, co-chaired with France the UN conference on the two-state solution in July 2025, and on 22 September 2025 delivered a statement on the Crown Prince’s behalf at its resumed session. He addressed the General Assembly’s general debate each year from 2022 to 2025.

  11. XI33.89° N · 35.50° E

    23 – 24 January 2025 · Levant

    Beirut and Damascus

    In Beirut he became the first Saudi foreign minister to visit in about fifteen years, meeting President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and the prime minister-designate Nawaf Salam. The next day, in Damascus, he held talks with Ahmed al-Sharaa — his first visit after the fall of the previous government.

  12. XII52.52° N · 13.40° E

    2026 · During a regional war

    Munich, Ankara, London, Rome, Berlin, Moscow

    In a year in which Saudi territory came under Iranian and later Houthi attack, his documented travel included the Munich Security Conference (February), the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in France as an invited partner (March), Ankara (May), London (May), Rome, where he co-chaired a Global Alliance session (July), Istanbul (31 August), Berlin (6 September) and Moscow (8 September) — returning, in Berlin, to the city of his only ambassadorship.

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Sources & Further ReadingDiplomatic Journey
  1. MOFA minister’s biography (Arabic). mofa.gov.sa
  2. Diplomat Magazine, 15 May 2019. diplomatmagazine.eu
  3. Government of Canada, G20 foreign ministers’ extraordinary meeting, September 2020. canada.ca
  4. Munich Security Conference media library, 15 February 2020. securityconference.org
  5. Al Arabiya, AlUla Declaration, 5 January 2021. english.alarabiya.net
  6. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Wuxi talks, January 2022. fmprc.gov.cn
  7. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 19 July 2022. mofa.go.jp
  8. Al Arabiya, Kyiv visit and US$400m agreements, 26 February 2023. english.alarabiya.net
  9. SCIO, Saudi–Iran joint statement, Beijing, 6 April 2023. scio.gov.cn
  10. Al Jazeera, Damascus visit, 18 April 2023. aljazeera.com
  11. Iran International, Tehran visit, 17 June 2023. iranintl.com
  12. OIC, committee meetings in London and Paris, November 2023. oic-oci.org
  13. EEAS, Global Alliance announced, September 2024. eeas.europa.eu
  14. UN News, two-state conference, July 2025. news.un.org
  15. The National, Beirut visit, 23 January 2025. thenationalnews.com
  16. Anadolu Agency, Damascus visit, 24 January 2025. aa.com.tr
  17. Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Global Alliance meeting, Rome, July 2026. esteri.it