Saudi Arabia is celebrating its National Day with concerts and other events, while adhering to COVID-19 precautionary measures, to commemorate the Kingdom’s unification under its founder, King Abdulaziz Al Saud, 90 years ago.
This year, the country’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA) organized a string of concerts that will take place from September 22-26 to celebrate the national holiday, in accordance with GEA guidelines that were put in place to ensure everyone’s safety amid the coronavirus pandemic, Al Arabiya reported.
The guidelines emphasize the importance of wearing masks, social distancing, reducing the duration of social contact, in addition to other preventative measures.
On Wednesday, more than 60 military and civilian aircrafts participated in a live show that was aired on Saudi TV 1, GEA said in a tweet, adding that it will be the largest air show in the history of Saudi Arabia’s National Day celebrations.
In 2005, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz made September 23 a national holiday in the Kingdom.
Since then, the country celebrated its national day in various ways. Last year, Saudi Arabia’s 89th National Day featured over 70 entertainment events across the Kingdom, including light shows, fireworks, and music performances, organized by the country’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA) for a five-day National Day Season.
In 2018, more than 900,000 fireworks lit up the sky simultaneously from over 58 sites across the Kingdom in celebration of its 88th National Day.
Today, Saudi Arabia witnesses a distinguished present, looking forward to a more distinguished future full of confidence in the title of the stage, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who has been making, since the beginning of his reign, an effort to advance Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
The Saudi King and Crown Prince both received numerous cables of congratulations from Gulf, Arab and international leaders on this occasion.
Meanwhile, the UAE joined Saudi Arabia in celebrating the Kingdom’s 90th National Day. The UAE’s official and public participation in this year’s celebration, held under the slogan, “Together Forever”, confirms the deep ties between the two countries, Emirates news agency WAM reported.
Throughout history, the relations between the two countries have guaranteed the security of Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC, and Arab countries, in light of their shared views on the region’s affairs and their cooperation in addressing the challenges facing the Middle East, most notably combating extremism, terrorism and foreign interventions, WAM added.
In 2016, the two countries signed an agreement to establish a joint coordination council, which holds consultations on issues of mutual concern.
In June 2018, the UAE and Saudi Arabia reinforced their bilateral ties to unprecedented levels and announced a comprehensive mutual vision of integration in economic, development and military areas, through 44 joint strategic projects under the framework of the Al Azm Strategy, with the participation of 350 officials from 139 Emirati and Saudi authorities.
The two countries have the two largest Arab economies and are among the top 10 exporters in the world, with a total export size of nearly $750 billion in 2018.
For their part, Bahrain’s leader, government and people, also joined Saudi Arabia in celebrating its 90th National Day, Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported.
Bahrain has regularly affirmed that it always stood with Saudi Arabia, based on the belief in the unity of purpose and destiny and on the fact that its security is an integral part of Bahrain's security and Gulf and Arab security.
