Foreign relations of Saudi Arabia

The foreign policy of Saudi Arabia is focused on co-operation with the oil-exporting Gulf States, the unity of the Arab World, Islamic solidarity, and support for the United Nations.

[1] In practice, the main concerns in recent years have been relations with the US, the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Iraq, the perceived threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the effect of oil pricing.

However, the relationship witnessed certain decline during the last years of the Obama administration, but strengthened following the election of President Donald Trump who forged close ties with the Saudi royal family.

It also seriously harmed the Soviet Communist cause by stabilizing oil prices "throughout the 1980s, just when the Russians were desperate to sell energy in order to keep up with huge hikes in American military spending.

[33] According to the government-associated paper Ain Al-Yaqeen article in 2002, Saudi government-sponsored projects were active in non-Muslim countries in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Australia and Asia.

[32] In February 2019, Saudi Arabia's Crown prince Mohammad bin Salman defended Xinjiang internment camps for Muslims, saying "China has the right to carry out anti-terrorism and de-extermination work for its national security.

[93] Both countries established diplomatic relations on 14 October 1956 when Minister of the Republic of Sudan to Saudi Arabia, Sayyid Mahjoub Maccawi, presented his credentials to King Saud.

The United States is one of Saudi Arabia's largest trading partners and closest allies and has had full diplomatic relations since 1933 and they remain strong today.

when nineteen men affiliated with al-Qaeda, including 15 Saudi nationals, hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners, crashing two of the planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing 2,973.

Saudi Arabia issued a statement on the day of the terrorist attacks on America's World Trade Center and Pentagon, calling them "regrettable and inhuman."

[citation needed] In his first formal television interview as U.S. President, Barack Obama addressed the Muslim world through an Arabic-language satellite TV network Al-Arabiya.

On 20 October 2010, U.S. State Department notified Congress of its intention to make the biggest arms sale in American history – an estimated $60.5 billion purchase by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

[207] Following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Saudi Arabia was the largest aid donor to China, providing close to €40,000,000 in financial assistance, and an additional €8,000,000 worth of relief materials.

[210] In July 2019, UN ambassadors of 37 countries, including Saudi Arabia, have signed a joint letter to the UNHRC defending China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region.

Saudi Arabia's concerns about Iran on the other side are mainly associated with its plans of expanding influence to other parts of the Persian Gulf region, especially in post-Saddam Iraq, and the quest to build its own nuclear arsenal.

Despite both countries' efforts to help contain the situation, the Iranian government has at times accused Saudi Arabia of supporting ISIS, which they had done up until the events of June 2014.

In the past, backing for such groups had been discreet, but in early 1992 the Saudi's invited several Iraqi opposition leaders to Riyadh to attend a well-publicised conference.

To further demonstrate Saudi dissatisfaction with the regime in Baghdad, Crown Prince Abdallah permitted the media to videotape his meeting with some of the opponents of Saddam Hussein.

Saudi Arabia rejected the Camp David accords, claiming that they would be unable to achieve a comprehensive political solution that would ensure Palestinian Arabs could all move to Israel and the division of Jerusalem.

The agreement soon failed, but Saudi Arabia has continued to support a national unity government for the Palestinians, and strongly opposed Israel's war on Gaza in early 2009.

The Times has reported that Saudi Arabia has tested the ability to stand down their air defenses to allow an Israeli strike on Iran to pass through their airspace.

[228][229][230] Some financial economists have interpreted the 2014 Saudi–Qatari rift as the tangible political sign of a growing economic rivalry between oil and natural gas producers, which could "have deep and long-lasting consequences" beyond the Middle East-North Africa area.

In 2016, two-way trade volume reached US$29.04 billion with South Korea exporting cars, electronic goods, steel and other items to Saudi Arabia and importing oil and other petrochemical products from it.

While relations with former President Saleh were often stormy, Saudi Arabia considers the Iranian backed Houthis to be a terrorist group and a threat to the stability of not only their kingdom but the entire region.

Lina Khatib, head of the Middle East and north Africa programme at Chatham House, said that Saudi Arabia had embarked upon a "wide-ranging PR campaign focused on the UK and the US" since 2016, which involved English-language content targeting a British audience.

SMRG has signed a deal with The Independent to launch foreign-language websites (including Arabic) across the Middle East, which has led to concern over potential editorial influence by the Saudi publisher.

[279][280] According to a FARA eFile document filed with the US Department of Justice, the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hired an ex-top lobbyist of the Heritage Foundation for a brief legislative push before the inauguration of 2020 President-elect Joe Biden and his administration.

As per the filing, the PR firm was tasked with serving "federal legislative advocacy and related services to support the Embassy's congressional outreach efforts and further advance bilateral ties between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States."

During the primary debate of 2019, Biden was quoted as calling Saudi Arabia a "pariah" and promising to end the US arms sales to Riyadh following its alleged use in the Saudi-led coalition's war in Yemen that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians.

[284][285] Saudi Arabia is a member of the ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AL, AMF, BIS, ESCWA, FAO, G-20, G-77, GCC, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, International Maritime Organization, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, NAM, OAPEC, OAS (observer), OIC, OPCW, OPEC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, and WTrO.