Britain’s Middle East minister James Cleverly has arrived in Saudi Arabia to discuss different issues including climate change, security and trade.

Cleverly also met Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awadh bin Mubarak and delivered a message from Queen Elizabeth to Yemeni President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi. She congratulated him on Yemen’s National Day and sent her best wishes to the Yemeni people, UK ambassador Michael Aron said.

Cleverly described the Yemeni government’s co-operation with UN special envoy Martin Griffiths as “encouraging” and he also underlined the importance of the Riyadh Agreement.

Cleverly visited Sabic, a chemical manufacturing company and subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, to discuss opportunities for British firms to turn “plastic waste into energy”.

Sabic said it briefed Cleverly on how it fostered collaboration “along the entire value chain to help extract value from plastic waste through our high-performance solutions”.

“Before Cop26, the UK is committed to supporting renewable energy growth globally,” Mr Cleverly said, referring to the UN climate summit that will be hosted in Glasgow later this year.