RIYADH, 7 May 2008 — In the spring of 1932, King Faisal ibn Abdul Aziz, who was then a 26-year-old prince, led a Saudi delegation to Moscow on a historical visit to bring the two countries together and open a new page in the Kingdom’s international relations, said Prince Turki Al-Faisal, former intelligence chief and former Saudi Ambassador to Washington, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat.
The then Prince Faisal had previously successfully — at the behest of his illustrious father — negotiated with the British to gain recognition for sovereign Saudi rule in Hejaz and Najd.
At the age of 18, he led a military campaign in the southern province of Asir and was instrumental in uniting the region with the rest of the Kingdom. It was then that his father, King Abdul Aziz, appointed him as his deputy in the region.
Later, he was designated foreign minister to head the Foreign Relations Department, which later became the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
His mission to Moscow, which was the capital of the then Soviet Union in 1932, was no less significant. Russia was the first foreign power to recognize the Kingdom’s independence and establish full diplomatic relations.
Despite huge political and ideological differences between the two countries, Moscow supported King Abdul Aziz’s efforts to establish a unified and stable state. On the other hand, the Russians would avoid interfering in the Kingdom’s domestic matters, something that paved the way for better understanding between the two countries.
King Abdul Aziz, who wanted to strengthen international relations, was aware that strong Russian ties could help settle his differences with Britain, said Prince Turki.
Moreover, Russia was a good trade partner. The Kingdom admired the Soviet Union — unlike Great Britain — for its ability to forge relations on equal terms without trying to dictate terms.
It was planned that the then Prince Faisal would lead a mission to Moscow in 1927. However, the visit did not take place. By 1932, when the Soviet Union had become more established, the Kingdom viewed Moscow as a dependable trade partner.
Revolutions launched with Soviet support in several countries were also on the wane at the time. Although King Abdul Aziz was irked by Russia’s hostile stance on religion, he was, nevertheless, confident that good relations with Russia would not have any negative impact on religious issues. He, therefore, decided to send the then Prince Faisal to Moscow in 1932 after visits to France, England, Poland and Turkey.
Prince Turki said the major issues the young Prince Faisal had to sort out during his Moscow visit included the one concerning Muslim endowments (awqaf) in Russia, which had been nationalized. Another issue was the facilitation of Haj for Russian Muslims. The Russian official stance on Haj, then, was that religion was a private affair and the state would not interfere.
The Russian commissioner in Hejaz, Nazir Taryaklov, used to insist that the economic agreements between the two countries should not be linked to the issues of endowment and pilgrimage, Prince Turki said.
On trade issues, Saudi Arabia made it clear that a trade agreement between the two countries should include conditions that Russia does not flood the Saudi market with its goods, Soviet trade activities should not lead to a fall in prices in the market and Soviet goods should be sold at a specified period through state channels.
The Kingdom also demanded that Russia sign a contract to provide commercial credits to the Kingdom. Though the Russian side did not accept the conditions, the two countries continued negotiations. Apparently, Russia hoped that eventually Saudi Arabia would grant more concessions.
These were the tough issues Faisal had to find solutions to during his visit to Moscow in 1932, Prince Turki said. Faisal, accompanied by Deputy Saudi Foreign Minister Foad Hamza and his aide Khaled Al-Ayyoubi, flew from Amsterdam to Berlin on May 18 and from there went on train to Poland and then to Moscow.
On May 29, the day of his arrival in Moscow, the official Russian newspaper Izvestia ran an article highlighting growing Saudi-Russian relations. The article said that Faisal’s visit “sought to strengthen the young state’s international relations.”
It stressed the importance of the rise of Najdi tribes against the oppression of Ottoman rule in the Arab world. It also discussed British exploitation in the region and an European attempt to divide the region as French and British Mandates. It lauded the successes achieved by King Abdul Aziz in unifying the peninsula, describing it as a struggle for national liberation and noted that the Soviet Union was the first country to recognize the Kingdom’s independence and establish normal diplomatic relations.
The Russian article pointed out that the Kingdom deserved the recognition by other big powers. It also commended King Abdul Aziz for his pragmatic domestic and foreign policies, and made indications toward the Kingdom’s increasing prominence as a hub for unprecedented international trade.
The article signified the importance given by the Russian authorities to the visit. It also described King Abdul Aziz’s fight against colonization and said that Russia was seeking to weaken British influence in the Middle East by strengthening relations with Saudi Arabia.
When the train carrying the then Prince Faisal steamed into the main station in Moscow, they were welcomed by the President of the People’s Commission for Foreign Affairs Sergie Yastakhov and former Soviet Commissioner in Hejaz, Kareem Hakimov.
The railway station was decorated to mark the occasion with Saudi and Soviet flags flying at several places, with the words “Ahlan wa Sahlan” displayed on walls in Arabic. There were a large number of high-ranking Russian officials to welcome him at the station. The copy of the letter sent by the king to the Russian President Joseph Stalin and the photos of Faisal’s visit have been published twice in a book.
King Faisal ibn Abdul Aziz, then foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, is seen at the Moscow railway station in Leningrad. He visited the Soviet Union at the head of a Saudi delegation on May 29, 1932. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
