In the history of Saudi diplomacy, March 2023 will probably be a milestone. The announcements that the kingdom’s officials have been making for the past ten days bode well for an important shift in the conduct of the country’s foreign policy.
It is not only about the next restoration of diplomatic relations with Iran, announced on December 10, 2022 in Beijing – since the signing of the first Iranian-Saudi friendship treaty in 1929, relations between the two neighbors, n stopped going through ups and downs. The novelty is that this diplomatic normalization is the result of Chinese mediation, in addition to Omani and Iraqi efforts. Saudi leaders were happy to point this out, with one saying that China is now “a major player in the security and stability of the Gulf”.
A stone, or rather a paving stone, in the garden of the United States, traditional protector of the monarchies of the peninsula, obliged to yield ground in this region to the Chinese outsider. Having become the main trading partner of the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council two years ago, Beijing, which is also the biggest buyer of Saudi crude, is reaping the political dividends of its economic investment.
All in its jubilation to be out of its unequal head-to-head with Washington, the Saudi crown even allowed itself to announce that it could invest ” very quickly “ in Iran. A snub, again, to the policy of the United States and its Israeli ally, braced on the isolation of the Islamic Republic.
“Strategic diversification”
The day before, as if to reassure old Uncle Sam, who is worried about the rise of China, the two Saudi airlines, Saudia and the brand new Riyadh Air, each ordered 39 long-haul 787 Dreamliners from Boeing, and put options for 43 additional devices. But this mega contract will not be enough to repair Saudi-American relations, damaged by the assassination in 2018 of journalist Jamal Khashoggi – attributed by the CIA to Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman – and by disputes over the price of oil.
“What we are witnessing are the premises of the new strategy of Arabia, determined to take full advantage of the multipolar world, which succeeds the era of American omnipotence.analyzes Cinzia Bianco, Gulf specialist at the European Council on Foreign Relations. It’s strategic diversification, a way of distributing bets, to better hedge. »
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