There have been some significant recent announcements about international cooperation – actual or potential – between Saudi Arabia and a number of European countries involving digital technology.
NORDUnet, a collaboration between the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) of five Nordic countries, has for some years been exchanging traffic with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology of Saudi Arabia (KAUST) through a 10 Gbps connection between Amsterdam and KAUST. This connection is now set to be dramatically upgraded.
KAUST is deploying a total of 400 Gbps intercontinental connectivity – 200 Gbps between Saudia Arabia and Amsterdam and 200 Gbps between Saudi Arabia and Singapore – enabling researchers to collaborate with their international peers in Europe, Asia and the US at very high speeds.
With these new links, KAUST will have high-speed, direct peerings with the SURF, NORDUnet, and GEANT research and education networks in Europe as well as the SingARENnetwork in Singapore. These interconnects will, says NORDUnet, provide KAUST researchers with fast and reliable access to resources in Europe and Asia as well as the US.
This development follows the recent announcement that Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Abdullah Al-Swaha, had held a meeting with the French ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ludovic Pouille, with the aim of enhancing bilateral collaboration in the field of the digital economy, as well as to exchange experiences in the fields of digital technology and entertainment.
