RIYADH: (DNA) –  Britain’s strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia helps to “keep the UK safe,” British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Saturday.

Hunt met with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ibrahim Al-Assaf and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir on Saturday in Riyadh. He described the meeting as “excellent.”

The foreign secretary is on a trip to the Gulf region to urge the immediate implementation of the UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement.

Hunt said that he and Al-Jubeir agreed that progress on the agreement was “overdue,” and that it is “vital for Hodeidah to be cleared of militia urgently” so that a humanitarian corridor can be opened.

The foreign secretary met Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in Riyadh earlier on Saturday. He described progress on UN-backed peace talks on Yemen as “fragile but within sight.”

Hunt also attended a Global Ministerial Patient Safety Summit in Jeddah.

On Friday, Hunt visited Muscat where he signed a joint declaration on UK-Omani relations and met Houthi militia spokesman Mohamed Abdul Salem. He is also due to visit the UAE.