MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin
hosted U.S. ally King Salman of Saudi Arabia for talks at the Kremlin
this week, cementing a relationship that is pivotal for world oil prices
and possibly signaling a shift in Middle East politics.
Salman, the first sitting Saudi monarch ever
to visit Russia, led a delegation to Moscow bringing with him investment
deals worth several billion dollars, providing much-needed investment
for a Russian economy battered by low oil prices and Western sanctions.
Saudi Arabia said it signed a memorandum of
understanding on the purchase from Russia of S-400 air defense systems.
That marked a shift for the kingdom, which buys most of its military
supplies from the United States and Britain.
On the political front, there was no sign of
any substantial breakthrough on the issues that have long divided Moscow
and Riyadh, including the fact that they back rival sides in Syria's
war.
However, any discord was eclipsed by mutual
expressions of respect, and the pomp and ceremony Russian officials put
on to greet the Saudi king.
On his journey into central Moscow from
Vnukovo airport late on Wednesday, King Salman's limousine passed
billboards bearing his photograph and messages in Russian and Arabic
welcoming him.
On Thursday, Putin received the monarch in the
gold-decorated St. Andrew Hall, one of the grandest spaces in the
Kremlin, attended by soldiers in ceremonial dress and with an orchestra
playing the two countries' national anthems.
"I am sure that your visit will provide a good
impulse for the development of relations between our two states," Putin
told Salman later as they sat alongside each other in the Kremlin's
lavishly-decorated Green Parlour.
The Saudi king invited Putin to visit his
country — an offer the Russian leader accepted — and said they planned
to keep cooperating to keep world oil prices stable.
Moscow and Riyadh worked together to secure a
deal between OPEC and other oil producers to cut output until the end of
March 2018, helping support prices.
Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said Saudi
Arabia was "flexible" regarding Moscow's suggestion to extend the pact
until the end of next year.
The message of further joint Saudi-Russian action on output helped push up oil prices on Thursday.
'A historical moment'
Despite the chumminess, the two powers seemed to agree to disagree on one geopolitical issue: Syria.
Riyadh supports rebels fighting President
Bashar al-Assad’s army, while Russian and Iranian forces have sided with
Assad. This leaves Moscow aligned with Saudi Arabia’s arch-rival Iran,
whose influence Riyadh fears is growing in the region.
Briefing the media after the talks, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov focused on the common ground, saying the
two leaders had agreed on the importance of fighting terrorism, finding
peaceful solutions to conflicts in the Middle East, and on the principle
of territorial integrity.
His Saudi counterpart, Adel al-Jubeir, said
new horizons had opened for Russia-Saudi ties that he could not
previously have imagined.
"Relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia have reached a historical moment," said Jubeir, speaking through an interpreter.
"We are certain that the further strengthening
of Russian-Saudi relations will have a positive impact on strengthening
stability and security in the region and the world."
A package of investments announced during the visit will help cement
the new relationship and go some way toward plugging the vacuum left by
sluggish Western investment in Russia that is, in part, a result of
international sanctions imposed after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.
Among the deals was an agreement between
Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment
Fund to invest up to $100 million in transport projects in Russia.
The two countries also signed a deal to set up a $1 billion joint investment fund.
Russia stepping into U.S. leadership vacuum
There has been no immediate U.S. reaction to the growing ties between Riyadh and Moscow.
But the United States, for which Saudi Arabia
is an important strategic ally and trading partner in the Middle East,
is likely to notice Russia's newfound friendship with Saudi Arabia.
Analysts see Salman's trip to Moscow, which
follows other visits by Gulf royals, as the clearest sign yet that
Russia's high-risk gamble in Syria has paid off.
"A number of Gulf leaders have been going with
greater regularity to Moscow and I think for a simple reason: Russia
has made itself much more of a factor in key parts of the Middle East as
the U.S. has taken a step back in some ways, particularly in Syria,"
said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Saudi-U.S. ties grew strained under the Obama
administration over its backing of a nuclear agreement with Iran and its
cautious stance on the Syrian conflict.
Relations have improved — President Donald Trump began his first foreign trip
with a stop in Riyadh and signed a nearly $110 billion arms deal with
the country. But on Syria, the two countries remain divided with
Washington's focus on fighting ISIS the Islamic State group, not on
ousting Assad.
Anna Borshchevskaya, a fellow at The
Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says that even though Moscow
has no capacity to replace Washington, its is definitely exerting its
diplomatic muscles on the world stage.
"It's clear that Russia has been able to play a
weak hand very well and step into vacuums everywhere where the U.S. has
retreated," she said.
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