“We build bridges with people; we don’t see one as exclusive to the other,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble in Jeddah. “We want to be able to engage with everyone and we want to be able to work with everyone. That’s what we’ve done,” said al-Jubeir, who was recently appointed as the climate envoy. “China is our largest trading partner. It’s a huge energy market and a huge market in the future. And China is a big investor in Saudi Arabia – the United States is of course our number one partner in terms of security and the coordination policy, as well as investment and trade between the two countries”. The conversation took place against a backdrop of Biden’s much-publicized — and criticized — visit to the Middle East, his first since taking office. The president was on a mission to restore ties with Saudi Arabia, a strategic ally of some 80 years, and a country he has spent years excoriating over its human rights abuses. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir addresses a press conference in the desert kingdom’s capital, Riyadh, on November 15, 2018. Fayez Nureldine | AFP | Getty Images
Hedging their bets
Another ongoing goal of the administration is to persuade the Gulf states, which rely on the US for security and military equipment, to help isolate Russia and China. After years of inconsistent engagement from Washington, beginning with the Obama administration’s stated desire to “pivot” away from the Middle East and Asia, governments in the region have expanded ties with the two US rivals – particularly China, which is the leading commercial market of Saudi Arabia. partner and among the top buyers of its oil. Many regional officials and analysts argue that these states cannot be blamed for trying to hedge their bets, especially when China is such a lucrative trading partner and investor and when Saudi Arabia’s hard-won relationship with fellow crude exporter, Russia, allowing it greater control over oil markets. One such example is certain types of weapons that the US does not yet sell to Arab allies: killer drones. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – despite being closely tied to Washington, hosting US military bases and requiring US training to use interoperable weapons systems from the US – are buying killer drones from China because they can’t get them from their American allies due to strict export controls. In a kind of Catch-22, Washington is now withholding some weapons from the UAE because of concerns about its relationship with China. However, the sheer scale and depth of political, military and economic ties between Washington and Riyadh mean that both sides have a clear interest in maintaining the nearly century-old relationship. “With the United States, we share a history and we share the contemporary issues … the challenges in our region, whether it’s Iran, Yemen, Iraq, supporting Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the peace process, the Horn of Africa, the G5 countries The Sahel stabilizes Libya, Afghanistan… our relationship with the US in dealing with these issues is critical,” al-Jubeir said. It is important “for the mutual benefit of the two countries and so this relationship is very stable and very strong”, added the minister. “And we believe that over the last 80 years it has provided enormous benefits to both countries and we look forward to building on the next 80 years.”
