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Putin goes calling on the Saudis

Atul Aneja

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan could not have been timed better. Saudi Arabia had just taken an initiative that could help revive the West Asia peace process. Four days before his arrival, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz had got the Palestinian groups to assemble in Makkah, and, after intense discussions, obtained an agreement to form a national unity government.

It did not take the Americans and the Europeans long to express their discomfort with the home-grown Arab accord. The United States insisted that it would consider engaging Hamas only if it recognised Israel, renounced violence, and accepted past peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. The European Union said it needed more time to study the accord. The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday that the Makkah accord did not meet the benchmarks set by the Quartet — the U.S., the EU, the U.N., and Russia. He said he had spoken to U.S. President George W. Bush and that the American and Israeli positions were "totally identical" on the issue.

Russia, in sharp contrast, had strongly supported the Saudis' initiative. "Agreements between the Fatah and Hamas movements on the formation of a national unity government are welcomed in Moscow," its Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin declared. "We believe that only such a step may lead to stabilisation in the Palestinian territories and settlement of situation around them."

Soon after landing in Riyadh, Mr. Putin, in the presence of his Saudi hosts, reiterated Russia's offer to host an international conference on West Asia. Such a meeting, he proposed, would cover all the major crises in the region, including the Israel-Palestinian dispute, the Lebanon problem, and the Syria-Israel standoff over the Golan Heights. Saudi Arabia welcomed the proposal, as did Qatar, the Russian leader's next stop on his tour.

Mr. Putin visited Saudi Arabia at a time when the Kingdom had accelerated the pursuit of an independent foreign policy. In an editorial, the Saudi English daily Arab News noted that, "The visit of Vladimir Putin, the first by a Russian President, underlines a shift in the Kingdom's economic and political policy. It has been taking place over the past five years — and the shift is eastward, away from what was formerly almost an exclusive reliance on ties with the U.S, Europe, and other Western nations."

There is a growing perception in the Kingdom that Russia could become a reliable provider of hi-technology, especially since it was unlikely to attach "political strings" to such transfers. Aware of the Saudi hunger for cutting edge technology, Mr. Putin offered Saudi Arabia collaboration in nuclear technology. At a Riyadh press conference later, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal stated that there were "no barriers" to atomic energy tie-ups with Moscow.

Russia also declared that it would launch six satellites for Saudi Arabia. Besides, it reportedly sought Saudi investment for its GLONASS satellite navigation system. The GLONASS system, designed for military and civilian purposes, is the Russian version of the American Global Positioning System (GPS). Russia also offered its T-90 tanks to the Kingdom in order to breach the Western-dominated Saudi military hardware market.

Energy issues discussed

In Riyadh and Qatar, Mr. Putin spent considerable time with his interlocutors on finding common ground on energy issues that could yield mutual benefits. Russia is the world's second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia, and has the largest natural gas reserves, followed by Iran and Qatar. In Qatar, Mr. Putin called for the formation of a gas cartel or an alternative mechanism, which would coordinate the outflow of natural gas in the international market.

Mr. Putin's visit to West Asia, which followed his severe indictment of American foreign policy during a security conference in Munich, has opened up the debate on whether resource-rich West Asia is fast emerging as yet another battleground for influence between Moscow and Washington.

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