The visit to Moscow three years ago by the then Crown Prince, now Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, was seen at the time as visible proof that a new, positive era in relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia had begun. This week’s visit to Riyadh by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the agreement to set up a joint body to fight regional and international terrorism are signs of how far relations have since progressed. The creation of a joint anti-terrorist organization could not have happened a few years ago. There were still too many fault lines threatening to undermine the relationship: Chechnya, worries about the treatment of Russia’s Muslims, memories of Afghanistan. All this, and more, put the brakes on the growth of a new relationship, even though it had, at least economically, begun to take off.
Building the new relationship has not been easy. There are those who do not want Saudi-Russian bonds to flourish — those for whom Chechnya is the only consideration, for whom Russia means memories of centuries of oppression and which still has to be fought; in Russia, there is the Muslim-hating extreme right. Both try to exploit historic phobias. Further afield, in the US, right-wing and pro-Israeli think tanks have presented the rapprochement between Riyadh and Moscow as a threat to US and Western politico-economic interests in the region.
Thankfully, Russia’s Islamophobes and Saudi Russophobes do not represent either Russian or Saudi views. Relations with the Americans and the Europeans are on the best of terms and will remain so. This week’s other prominent agreement, the signing of a multibillion- dollar deal for a new refinery in Jubail with French oil giant Total and another expected shortly with ConocoPhillips for a refinery in Yanbu are proof that ties with the West are as strong as ever. Commercial considerations are, of course, a major factor in doing business with Russia, just as they are with India or China or Brazil. Business is business — and Russian companies are highly competitive and highly skilled and, in the field of gas exploration, among the best in the world; it would be foolish not to do business with them. There is, however, more to the growing Saudi-Russian relationship than commercial considerations.
The two countries have several common, if not identical, concerns and objectives. On Iran, for example, both are concerned about its nuclear intentions but are equally determined that diplomatic efforts must be allowed to resolve the issue without sanctions. On the Palestinian situation, both have the identical objective of a viable Palestinian state.
Just as the two can collaborate against terrorism, so too, as the world’s largest oil producers, they can, through closer cooperation, help to ensure oil price stability. Saudi Arabia and Russia have intertwined interests, not least regional peace. A developing strategic relationship could be effective in achieving those interests. The knowledge that that is so will enable the relationship to grow even further.
