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Yesterday Boris Johhnson said that his talks with with Saudi Arabia’s ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, about getting the country to increase its oil production (to curb price rises for consumers in the west) had been “very productive”. But he could not say that Saudi oil output would increase, the No 10 readout from the meeting just said the two leaders “stressed the importance of working together to improve stability in the global energy market” and the Saudi readout did not even mention energy.
In interviews this morning, James Cleverly, the Foreign Office minister, said that it was never realistic to expect Johnson to secure an immediate agreement on increasing oil production. He told the Today programme:
I don’t think it was ever likely to be the case that it would be something that was agreed in the room The oil-producing states will need to negotiate with each other as well as making internal political decisions, as you would expect.