Aditi Bhaduri 

Last week the world was stunned when news broke of the meeting and talks taking place on 18th February between an American delegation headed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a Russian one headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, after years of Russian boycott and isolation by the west.

But equally surprising was the venue - Riyadh, and not somewhere more predictable like Budapest or even New Delhi.

Despite being a close US ally, Saudi Arabia has also cultivated relations with Russia by coordinating oil prices and supplies. Over the past few years, Saudi Arabia has also grown close to China, one of the highlights of which was the China-brokered Saudi-Iranian truce. Though the new US administration of Donald Trump has designated China as the number one rival of the US, it did not stop the latter from choosing Riyadh as a venue.

This reflects deft Saudi diplomacy.  Both Moscow and Washington have highly appreciated Riyadh’s role in hosting the talks which required a "neutral venue", which Saudi Arabia provided.

This is not the first time that Saudi Arabia has played a mediating role in the Ukraine conflict. In August 2023 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia organised peace talks on Ukraine. More than 40 countries, including India, the United States, European countries, and China participated in them, but not Russia. Before the talks, the kingdom had hosted Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy who had addressed the Arab League summit then, explaining the Ukrainian position.

The Ukraine crisis is not the only global crisis in which Saudi Arabia has intervened. It has taken a leadership role in the Hamas-Israel war too, ongoing right on its doorstep. The Saudis have called regularly for a cessation of violence, sent humanitarian aid, condemned the horrific Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023 which began the current round of violence,  and called for a two-state solution. 

An overarching framework for the resolution of the conflict was proposed by the Saudis in the peace plan they floated in 2002 in the wake of the second Palestinian intifada. It has the consensus of all the Arab states and offers full recognition of the State of Israel and normalization of relations with it in exchange for a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel. 

Russia-US talks on Ukraine war in Riyadh

Now, with the announcement of US President Donald Trump's Gaza "Riviera" plans which require the resettlement of the Gaza Strip's almost two million residents in other countries,  primarily in Egypt and Jordan,  it is again Saudi Arabia that has come out with the sternest response. Soon after Trump reiterated his intention to redevelop Gaza without its residents, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement reaffirming the Kingdom's unwavering stance on the Palestinian issue, saying that its position on the establishment of a Palestinian state was “firm and non-negotiable”, and that it will not establish relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.  

Following this, the kingdom convened the leaders from the GCC, Jordan, and Egypt to discuss the Gaza issue ahead of the emergency Arab Summit in Cairo, set for early March. 

Of course, the Saudis have been consistent and generous contributors to the Palestinians. It has also consistently conditioned normalizing ties with Israel to the creation of a Palestinian state. It is also a close American ally and has announced its plans to invest around $600 billion in the United States. 

Nevertheless, in general, the Saudis have been known to usually keep a low profile.  It’s now stepping up. The most plausible reason could be the Kingdom's yearning to reclaim its regional leadership.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an energy powerhouse and the largest economy in the region, and the home to Islam's two holiest shrines is the acknowledged leader of the Muslim and Arab world. But other powers have challenged the kingdom on this front. As change and conflicts sweep across the region and even in the world, the country under the de facto rule of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Sultan has encountered numerous challenges in its foreign policy.

The war in Yemen, the Arab Spring, the spat with Qatar, and the strain in relations with the US and Turkey, together with internal challenges of corruption, employment, and a burgeoning youth population, have necessitated a rethink.

Apart from sweeping domestic reforms, enshrined in the Saudi Vision 2030 document, this rethink has been manifested in the way the Saudis have reached out to Qatar,  mended fences with Turkey, and has a rapprochement with Iran facilitated by China. Besides, MBS also seeks to reclaim the mantle of regional leadership, which the kingdom is well endowed with.

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Peace-making or mediation is a key part of expanding a country’s geopolitical profile. Others like Qatar, and Turkey have all engaged in it, increasing their regional and global footprint. For Saudi Arabia,  hosting an event like the Jeddah talks or US-Russian talks, or assuming leadership to resolve the Palestinian issue, projects the kingdom as a responsible, neutral, and capable power not just in the region or the Muslim world but as a global one. Synergizing these outreaches with internal reforms will be beneficial for the region and beyond.

Aditi Bhaduri in an independent journalist who writes on Middle-East and central Asia