Saudi Arabia’s Cabinet, meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday, approved plans to design and build the kingdom’s first joint satellite with Egypt. The session was chaired by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the readout released afterwards did not carry any technical specifications for the project. Approval landed on a long Vision 2030 to-do list that already names space, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digital infrastructure as priority industries.
The satellite drew the headlines, but the same Cabinet session cleared a stack of other items in a single sitting. Ministers approved the executive regulation for the law that allows non-Saudis to own real estate, identified the geographic areas where foreign ownership will be permitted, and endorsed nine new bilateral agreements covering energy, justice, housing, labor, education, transport and small business. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also the kingdom’s prime minister, took two phone calls at the top of the session, from King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain and Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, and received a message from President Ramzan Kadyrov of the Chechen Republic. Minister of Media Salman Al-Dossary delivered the official readout to the Saudi Press Agency after the session.
What the Jeddah Cabinet Cleared on Tuesday
Tuesday’s session in Jeddah produced an unusually broad set of decisions, from a high-technology cooperation project to a property-rights framework and a sweep of foreign pacts. Egypt Today’s the Cabinet’s satellite approval in full framed the new project as a milestone in regional space collaboration, while MNTV reported it as the kingdom’s first joint Saudi-Egyptian satellite. No mission parameters, payload, launch date or budget appeared in the public statement.
The Cabinet also approved the Executive Regulation of the Law of Real Estate Ownership by Non-Saudis, and endorsed the geographic areas where non-Saudi ownership will be permitted, a follow-up to the underlying law that entered into force in January 2026 after publication in the official gazette in July 2025. The new regulation, the Saudi Gazette reported, opens residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial property to non-Saudi individuals and companies, subject to approval from the competent authorities. Foreign companies operating in the kingdom get a parallel right to own the offices, factories and warehouses their activities require, as long as they hold an official licence. Beyond the satellite and the property rules, ministers cleared 9 new bilateral instruments in one sitting. The list spans nine countries and covers energy, justice, housing, labor, education, transport and small-business cooperation, with each item a memorandum of understanding or an equivalent framework rather than a binding treaty. The full list of nine countries and the sector covered by each agreement is set out below.
- Energy cooperation with Germany
- Justice cooperation with the Maldives
- Mosque support with Mauritius
- Municipal and housing cooperation with China
- Labor recruitment with Nepal
- Labor recruitment with Nigeria
- Education and training with the United States
- Air transport services with Pakistan
- Small and medium-sized enterprises cooperation with Oman
The session also handled smaller institutional housekeeping. Ministers endorsed transforming the Ministry of Culture’s Cultural Archive unit into a non-independent Center for the Memory of Saudi Culture, preserving its existing arrangements under a new label. They reviewed the 2025 performance of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, which the readout credits with strengthening strategic sectors including industry, mining and logistics. Al-Dossary told the Saudi Press Agency that the Cabinet had “reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s firm and steadfast stances in support of efforts to establish the pillars of security and stability in the region and the world”.
The diplomatic traffic on the day was as wide as the agenda. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman took calls from Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, and received a written message from President Ramzan Kadyrov of the Chechen Republic. The Cabinet was briefed on all three at the start of the session.
How the Saudi-Egyptian Space Track Got Here
The Tuesday decision is the latest step on a cooperation line that began almost three years ago, well before Tuesday’s readout. On December 20, 2023, the Saudi Space Agency and the Egyptian Space Agency signed a memorandum of understanding in Riyadh for cooperation in space activities for peaceful purposes, according to the Saudi Press Agency’s the December 2023 MoU between the two space agencies. The MoU was signed at SSA headquarters by SSA CEO Dr. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi and Egyptian Space Agency CEO Dr. Sherif Sedky. The deal is set to provide a framework for cooperation in space activities, enhance areas of mutual interest related to the peaceful uses of space, and facilitate the exchange of information and technologies. It also aims to develop research and development in related fields, contributing to what the agencies describe as further achievements and a wider collaboration. The Crown Prince, who chairs the kingdom’s Higher Council of Space, sits at the top of the Saudi side of that track.
The mandate inside the new project is concrete, even if the spec sheet is not. Egypt Today reports that the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) and the Saudi Space Agency (SSA) are already collaborating on manufacturing, operating, imaging and marketing, with high priority on remote sensing and Earth observation satellites. Egypt has been building its own record on the same shelf, having launched the MisrSat 2 satellite and the SPNEX scientific laboratory, which measures ionosphere plasma. The new project is meant to land on the same shelf, and the first joint satellite would be the most visible proof of concept to date.
| Dimension | Saudi Space Agency (SSA) | Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) |
|---|---|---|
| CEO at the December 2023 MoU signing | Dr. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi | Dr. Sherif Sedky |
| Reference satellite in the public record | Frames space as a civilian, high-technology industry under Vision 2030 | Launched MisrSat 2 and the SPNEX ionosphere plasma laboratory |
| Working mandate in the partnership (per Egypt Today) | Manufacturing, imaging, marketing, remote sensing and Earth observation | Manufacturing, imaging, marketing, remote sensing and Earth observation |
| Public framing of the partnership | “Peaceful purposes” (per the December 2023 SPA statement) | “Peaceful purposes” (per the December 2023 SPA statement) |
The Foreign Property Rule Book That Traveled With It
Tuesday’s real-estate vote is the second half of a sequence the Cabinet has been staging for almost a year. The underlying Law of Real Estate Ownership by Non-Saudis was published in the official gazette in July 2025 and entered into force in January 2026, the Saudi Gazette reported. What ministers approved this week is the Executive Regulation that turns that statute into an operational rule book, together with the geographic areas in which non-Saudis will be allowed to own property. The framework permits non-Saudis, whether individuals or companies, to own all types of real estate, from residential to industrial, subject to approval from the competent authorities.
Foreign companies get a parallel, narrower set of rights inside the same framework. A non-Saudi company with an official licence can own the offices, factories and warehouses its activities require, the regulation says. The same approval rules apply, with the competent authorities signing off on each purchase. Homes bought by non-Saudi individuals are also covered, though the regulation stops short of spelling out residency requirements, taxes or fees in the public readout. The Cabinet identified the geographic areas where the new rules apply, but the readout did not list the cities or districts on Tuesday’s record.
The regulation sits inside a wider programme of economic loosening that has come in stages. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy treats real estate as one of the sectors it wants to open to foreign capital and to expatriate residents. An approval pipeline rather than a free-for-all is the design the Cabinet has consistently used for that opening, and Tuesday’s vote is the latest in that pattern.
The regulation does not, on Tuesday’s record, include a list of cities or districts, nor does it name the ministry that will handle the new approval pipeline. That level of detail, the Cabinet appears to have left for the implementing authorities to publish in the coming weeks.
The Rankings Cabinet Wanted on the Record
Ministers did not only vote on Tuesday; they used the session to put fresh international rankings on the Cabinet’s own record. The Cabinet highlighted Saudi Arabia’s standing in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2026, where the kingdom climbed in the global league table and moved up inside the G20’s top three. The Cabinet also confirmed Saudi Arabia’s continued run at the top of the Global Cybersecurity Index, classified in the highest tier for its performance on digital transformation and technology localisation. Ministers said the country advanced across all main pillars of the index and ranked in the top ten in 74 sub-indicators. The post-session statement to the Saudi Press Agency, delivered by Minister of Media Salman Al-Dossary, ran through both rankings alongside the rest of the session’s decisions.
The Cabinet reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s firm and steadfast stances in support of efforts to establish the pillars of security and stability in the region and the world.
Salman Al-Dossary, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Media, delivered the post-session readout to the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday. The cybersecurity ranking, the Cabinet said, reflects the kingdom’s progress in supporting digital transformation, localising priority technologies, and strengthening cooperation with other countries and international organisations. The Cabinet also reviewed the 2025 performance of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, which ministers said strengthened the appeal of industry, mining and logistics and lifted investment, export growth and local content. Saudi Vision 2030’s official portal frames the strategy’s goal as building a vibrant society and a thriving, diversified economy.
- 13th place globally in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2026
- 3rd among G20 economies in the same index
- 74 sub-indicators in the top ten across all main pillars
- 3 consecutive years at the top of the Global Cybersecurity Index
What the Cabinet Did Not Put on the Page
The Cabinet readout leaves more questions than it answers on the satellite itself. Authorities have not released any technical specifications for the project, on Tuesday’s record. There is no mission statement, no payload list, no launch date and no budget on the public record, and the agencies have not named the Saudi ministry or entity that will lead the build.
The picture is more complete on the broader cooperation track. The December 20, 2023 memorandum of understanding between the Saudi Space Agency and the Egyptian Space Agency is the public foundation for the new initiative, with the two agencies already working on manufacturing, imaging, marketing, and remote sensing and Earth observation satellites. A separate iaqaba report on Egypt’s SPNEX satellite launch into low Earth orbit shows the country has the launch infrastructure and a working ionosphere plasma laboratory in orbit, both of which feed into the same bilateral shelf. The Crown Prince, who chairs the kingdom’s Higher Council of Space, is the named political anchor on the Saudi side. What that track needs now, on Tuesday’s record, are the engineering, financial and timeline details the Cabinet did not include.
That gap is not unusual for a Vision 2030 announcement at the Cabinet stage. Ministers tend to approve strategic frameworks first and let the implementing agencies fill in the technical detail later, as they did with the Cultural Archive-to-Center transformation also approved on Tuesday. The same pattern is visible in the property regulation, which sets the framework and leaves the city-by-city implementation to the relevant ministry. The Cabinet’s vote on Tuesday is the strategic framework; the satellite’s actual mission, payload and launch are still to be put on the public record.
