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Saudi Ties With Russia, Arab News
4 September 2003
Crown Prince Abdullah has called his visit to Moscow and talks with President Vladimir Putin “historic”; the Russian leader describes them as a landmark. Too often such words are mere hype, but they are no exaggeration in this case. Anyone who has been following Saudi-Russian contacts over the past year and a half cannot fail but to agree that a relationship of momentous importance is being forged. It is one that will affect not just the two countries but the entire Middle East.
The crown prince’s Moscow visit is both an official blessing on the budding relationship started by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal’s Russian visit in April 2002 and a way to make sure that major developments will take place — joint ventures, business deals, bilateral investment and, on the international front, joint political initiatives.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have a great deal in common. The two countries’ views are close on a range of political issues and, on the Middle East, almost identical. Russia endorsed Prince Abdullah’s Middle East peace proposals as the only means to end conflict between Palestinians and Israelis; both opposed the invasion of Iraq; both have the same view on the need for an internationally agreed postwar settlement there. It is this common political stand that has provided the foundation for closer commercial relations.
Prince Saud’s visit resulted in a commission on technical, scientific and cultural cooperation. Since then officials have been probing areas of potential cooperation, with the Russians particularly interested in the gas Initiative. That has now borne fruit in the oil and natural gas cooperation agreement signed during the Crown Prince’s visit and which Russia’s Energy Minister Igor Yusufov estimates could lead to deals worth up to $25 billion — a far cry from the present paltry level of trade. Oil is a further reason for close cooperation. The two countries are the world’s largest oil producers and have the world’s largest reserves. Both want a stable price and stable production. That requires close contact.
Chechnya, of course, is a problem. But Saudi Arabia has a bigger problem with the US: Israel. That has not stood in the way of close political and economic ties with the Americans. In the same way, Chechnya will not be a spanner in the works of closer ties with the Russians.
This is a relationship that is going to grow. Both governments want it, for political as well as economic reasons. Here is to be found a balance to US influence in the region, a balance for the good. Russia respects the Arab world. They treat Arabs as equals. They support the Palestinians. To echo Margaret Thatcher when she decided that she approved of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, these are people we can do business with.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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