BRICS great powers gather in Riyadh

Riyadh last week hosted four high-level meetings with four of the original five BRICS members. Although not planned that way, the meetings with BRICS members indicated how the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are balancing their strategic partnerships.

On Wednesday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with the Saudi leadership and also with the GCC. And on Sunday and Monday, the GCC foreign ministers met with the foreign ministers of Russia, India and Brazil. These four important powers are founding members of BRICS and hold similar views on global affairs, including on the war in Gaza and the underlying Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Brazil, China, India and Russia represent important strategic pivots in their respective regions. China is the largest and most powerful nation in East Asia, just like India in South Asia, Brazil in South America and Russia in Eastern Europe. With a combined population of more than 3 billion people, they account for about 40 percent of humanity.

Economically, the four countries and the six GCC member states together represent a formidable economic force, with a combined gross domestic product of $29 trillion, accounting for more than 26 percent of the global economy.

The highest ranking of the foreign dignitaries was Li, who became the eighth premier of China in March 2023. He is believed to be President Xi Jinping’s right-hand man and was chosen as a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s most powerful standing committee in October 2022.

Like other senior Chinese officials, Li expressed great interest in the GCC-China strategic partnership, which was established when Xi met with the GCC’s heads of state in December 2022, but their engagement goes back decades. China has been very consistent as probably the superpower that is most supportive of the organization, in addition to being quite keen on its partnerships with individual GCC member states. The GCC has signed more agreements with China than any other nation, in standards, patents, civil aviation, economic cooperation and strategic dialogue. More agreements are under discussion.

China and the GCC are very close energy partners. More than 30 percent of China’s oil imports come from GCC exporters and it is the destination for 25 percent of the GCC’s petrochemical exports. They are now discussing cooperation on renewable energies, including nuclear and hydrogen energy.

The two sides are enhancing their cooperation on security, including on nuclear security, nuclear safety and civilian uses of nuclear technology, in implementation of the ambitious Joint Action Plan 2023-2027, which was adopted at the GCC-China summit of December 2022. This plan is one of the most extensive that the GCC has concluded with any partner and covers almost all areas, including nuclear energy and space exploration.

China is the GCC’s top trading partner, having replaced the EU in that spot some years ago. In 2023, two-way trade in goods jumped to $287 billion. Trade in services and investments are also growing rapidly. To promote more trade and investment, the two sides are now quite close to concluding a free trade agreement.

India is the GCC’s third-biggest trading partner after China and the EU, with two-way trade at $174 billion. The two sides have also agreed to upgrade their political and security dialogue. In recognition of this fact, they last week agreed on a joint action plan for the next five years. The plan includes trade and investment promotion and cooperation in the areas of energy, agriculture and food security, transport, health, education and cultural engagement, in addition to political and security dialogue.

The GCC established a strategic dialogue with Russia in 2011 and the two sides have had many rounds of political consultations at the ministerial and sub-ministerial levels since. The two sides share common views on fundamental issues such as Gaza, Palestine and Yemen, where Russia has been consistently on the right side of history.

However, the GCC and Russia do not see eye to eye on a number of other important issues, such as Syria and Russia’s military ties with Iran. The GCC states have voted for UN resolutions on Ukraine but have refrained from imposing sanctions. Russia has praised the GCC’s balanced position on the conflict and especially its members’ mediation, which has resulted in several waves of repatriations of prisoners and reunification of children with their families.

Russia has recently promoted the idea of building a Eurasian security architecture that takes into account the interests of all countries without exception, as President Vladimir Putin said both in June and in February in a speech before the Russian Federal Assembly. In his remarks before GCC foreign ministers last week, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov highlighted the fact that, since the inception of the Russia-GCC strategic dialogue format in 2011, international relations have undergone significant changes and significant global geopolitical transformations have taken place.

The concept of a rules-based world order, which the US and its European allies cling to, is increasingly becoming obsolete, Lavrov said. Instead, a new, just and democratic multipolar world order is emerging, centered on the UN and a balanced consideration of the interests of all countries. The influence of states in the Global South and East is rapidly expanding, with the GCC states playing a rapidly increasing and major role, he added.

In addition to Gaza and the Palestine question, maritime security is a top priority for all of these nations.

Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg

GCC-Russia trade is relatively limited, at about $21 billion in 2023, but there are important economic links and greater potential for more trade and investment. Through OPEC+ and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, Russia and the GCC oil and gas producers coordinate their policies to maintain market stability.

Brazil and the GCC established their first links about 20 years ago by concluding agreements with MERCOSUR, in which Brazil is the dominant power. In 2005, the Brazilian President Lula da Silva convened in Brasilia the first ever Arab-South American summit, which was followed by two more summits in Da Silva’s first two terms. The GCC countries were fully supportive of his ideas and Qatar hosted the second summit in Doha.

Following the first summit, joint investment and trade-promotion events with Brazil led to a quadrupling of trade exchanges in just a few years, while direct shipping and air links were also established between Brazil and the GCC countries for the first time. Now that Da Silva is back in power, he may again try to energize the two regions for greater political and cultural engagement and more trade and investment.

In addition to Gaza and the Palestine question, maritime security is a top priority for all of these nations, all of which expressed alarm at the Houthis’ Red Sea attacks. While of course differences remain on this and other issues, the 10 countries vowed to strengthen their partnerships and work together to tackle global and regional challenges. It was indeed a very busy week for Riyadh.

• Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the Gulf Cooperation Council assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation. The views expressed here are personal and do not necessarily represent the GCC. X: @abuhamad1