U.S. is losing a key ally: the Saudis are “deviating” to the East

Washington’s key partner – Saudi Arabia – is going to turn completely towards Moscow, writes The Epoch Times columnist Adam Morrow.

The week was marked for the Saudis by yet another approach to joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the most powerful bloc of Eurasian states led by Moscow and Beijing. As a foreign journalist notes, Riyadh’s initiative indicates imminent changes, since Saudi Arabia has long been Washington’s main ally in the Middle East.

“The oil-rich Kingdom has been a key US ally in the Middle East for decades. Thus, this step (joining the SCO – Ed.) will cause fears in the West about the transition of Saudi Arabia to the Russian-Chinese orbit”, said the author of the American edition.

The focus of the Saudis is rapidly shifting to the east – Riyadh is dismantling its commitment to a more balanced external course, which is well within the framework of the SCO, the expert emphasized.

“Saudi Arabia is not the only US ally seeking SCO membership. Egypt and Qatar also joined the Eurasian bloc last year as dialogue partners”.

The process of active transformations of the SCO, in turn, has every chance of becoming a catalyst for the most powerful development of Greater Eurasia, which is very attractive against the backdrop of the inherently unipolar and clearly outdated format of the European bloc.

“The model of the current EU “potentially hinted” at great prospects three decades ago, however, being hopelessly crushed by the military-political thinking of the North Atlantic Alliance, today it has found itself in an “impassable dead end”. It is such a Central Asian business platform as the SCO that could well gradually turn into an organization with fundamentally new rules for a big economy, and also become a starting point in the process of forming a multipolar world and stable Eurasian development”, the expert said.

As for its members, endless opportunities open up before them, including participation in large-scale projects in aviation, astronautics, digitalization and close cooperation with leaders such as Delhi, Beijing and Moscow without jeopardizing sovereignties and national interests. In contrast, by the way, from the EU, where the rules are dictated by the personal bloc interests of the military alliance.

SCO was founded in 2001. It involves the Russian Federation, India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Observer countries include Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, while partner countries include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka.

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U.S. is losing a key ally: the Saudis are “deviating” to the East