... further escalation. The U.S. has no interest in a major regional war in the Middle East with an uncertain outcome, especially in the run-up to the presidential election in November. Thus, Washington is focused on maintaining the regional status quo. China has even less reason to welcome such a conflict, in the first place because it would immediately drive global hydrocarbon prices up and create many transportation and logistics issues for Beijing.
Moscow could possibly count on some short-term gains ...
... East to counter a resurgent China in East Asia, nobody in Washington could have expected that the U.S. would be returning to the Middle East soon, albeit this time to vie for influence with China. Yet this is precisely what happened last March when China successfully mediated the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The importance of this achievement cannot be understated. Years of geopolitical rivalry exacerbated by sectarian differences saw millions of lives lost to the Saudi–Iranian proxy war. The rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran ...
... military and infrastructural) ties with China. Thus, he sets aside the so-called “gamblers” (Saudi Arabia and the UAE); “fence-sitters” (Qatar and Oman); and “cautious conservatives” (Kuwait and Bahrain).
The former are fostering relations with China in strategically important areas. Saudi Arabia and the UAE were particularly concerned about U.S. plans to reduce its presence in the region; this prompted them to “openly hedge against a U.S. withdrawal from the region.” Not only did they actively pursue trade with China, but they ...
... transformations in their positions are not excluded, as partly demonstrated by the international meeting in Jeddah in August 2023.
The Global South embarks upon the path of diplomacy
In August, it became known about the consultations held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with the participation of the U.S., the UK, the EU, Turkey, Brazil, India, China and South Africa on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. It is noteworthy that representatives of Ukraine attended the meeting, while Russia did not receive an invitation. It became known from open sources that during the event Saudi Arabia ...
... have been conducted away from public view, US attempts to contact its key regional adversary appears far from accidental. The move could have been prompted by changes in Iran’s relations with other countries, especially its evolving cooperation with China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. If any agreement has been reached (which is currently too early to judge), it would only boost Iran’s position in the region. The mere fact that the US is holding such talks indicates that it recognizes that regional changes are taking ...
China has effectively coped with its role of facilitator, but now the country will have to enforce the agreements reached
In March 2023, seven years after diplomatic relations were severed, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) have agreed to reopen their embassies. This decision opens up the possibility of reducing tensions in the Gulf and, in the long term, in the entire region of the Middle East. Notably, both sides ...
...
grade oil to the market since their full production cycle takes place in at the Abqaiq facilities.
The loss of over half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production, if only for a time, will primarily hit Asian countries, which account for about 80 percent of ... ...
’s exports. These countries can make up for the shortage in three ways. First, they can use their own strategic reserves (China’s reserves alone are
estimated
at about 700 million barrels, however, there is no historic precedent for such steps); ...
... For the same reason, an international operation, at least at the initial stages, cannot be led by the navies of any regional powers already involved in a confrontation. It is also difficult, given the situation, to imagine that the navies of Iran and Saudi Arabia could interact effectively.
Ivan Timofeev:
Tanker Incidents: Who Blinks First?
India, China, and Russia could offer their patrolling services, since both India and China are critically dependent on the energy sources transported through the Strait, and Russia could carry out such work thanks to the special role that Moscow plays in the ...
... Russia’s Presence in Southeast Europe and Russia’s New Strategy
The United States is pushing forward only those decisions that assure their influence on the pan-European processes as well as strengthen their positions in the global confrontation. Russia, China, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, which are accumulating more and more influence in the region, taken separately, are not so powerful. In any case, they are simply not able to offer any alternative to the “European choice”. However, they have never even planned to offer ...
According to the new findings of the ongoing research project, Asian investors continue to increase direct investments in the EAEU. During the monitoring period (2008–2016), FDI stock originating from 12 Asian countries (China, Japan, Turkey, India, Israel, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Singapore, and Vietnam) has increased from $32 billion in 2008 to $75.6 billion in the beginning of 2017.
China continues to expand its economic presence in EAEU countries and other CIS states, retaining its leadership among ...
