Posted on 11/15/2022 4:20:56 AM PST by FarCenter
Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince has embarked on a multi-stop Asian tour, shoring up the Gulf nation's ties with its biggest energy market and signalling growing independence from Washington amid a bitter row over oil supply.
Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's 37-year-old de facto ruler, left Monday for the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
The official Saudi Press Agency said the trip would include "a number of Asian countries", though officials have not yet confirmed details of the itinerary.
A likely stop is South Korea, where local media report the crown prince will meet business leaders. He is then expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, starting Friday in Bangkok.
The trip comes as Riyadh feuds with Washington over the OPEC+ oil cartel's October decision to cut production by two million barrels per day.
...
Though both Biden and Prince Mohammed are in Bali for the G20 summit, the White House says the president has no plans for a bilateral meeting.
...
Sealed at the end of World War II, Saudi-US ties are often described as an oil-for-security arrangement.
Yet for the past decade Saudi crude's top export markets have been in Asia: China, Japan, South Korea and India.
...
The timing of energy talks with Asian partners is key, coming just weeks before the next OPEC+ meeting on December 4, which will likely put global disputes over energy supplies back in the headlines.
Prince Mohammed's Asia tour also precedes a trip to Saudi Arabia by Chinese President Xi Jinping planned for December.
Though no date is confirmed, Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said last month the kingdom was "finalising preparations" for talks with Xi that would also involve other Arab countries.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
The real future of growth and growth markets will be from those Asian, SE Asia, and growing African economies.
Smart move to be perfectly honest.
I thought Joe had this all cleared up?
The only thing the Saudis have to sell is oil and Joe’s made his opinion known on that.
nice going brandon..........
The Saudis/Gulf states aren’t stupid and neither are the chicoms. They both KNOW that whomever controls oil, thus controls the world order. Until something better then oil comes along (or Nuclear energy somehow becomes more accessible) then oil is still the gold, regardless of what the greenies tell us.
I personally think the chicoms are the ones that push the green energy nonsense down the US throats knowing they are ultimately choking the US to death. The chicoms would like nothing more then to pilfer the US resources for their own use as the US collapses in on itself.
I also believe that a large part of the Abraham Accords and not so discreet Israeli relations with the other gulf oil states is because the Arabs know the real threat to their control of oil is NOT the Israelis, but the Iranians with the Chinese bumping them behind from the east.
The Abraham Accords are basically in informal neighborhood watch group between the Gulf States and Israel to protect the “hood”. They all know the US is unreliable (sad to say), They don’t want the ruskies around either, and of course Iran is currently a big problem to world stability (although I’m confident the regime will collapse one day), and Israel certainly has no faith in Europe.
The advantage of doing business with the Asian countries is that they are not interested in changing your society with a lot of cant about human rights, social change, women’s rights, democracy, and free markets.
The Asians just want to trade.
good point.
Eventually the Left will meet Mr. Islam and it won’t be pretty.
They currently enjoy a nice symbiotic relationship—The left loves Islam because it destroys the West and they can use it as one of their plethora of phobias in their fear machine. Islam loves the left because they know they can exploit it to destroy the West as the left will always capitulate to the ever increasing push of Islam.
Islam will eventually swallow the left.
In the meantime — normal people like us are caught in the middle getting squeezed from both sides.
I guess I’m glad I grew up when I did!
you never miss a chance to put down America do you
As par, resident of Canuckistan, you confuse being critical with “put down’.......
Hey, how’s that Nazi Freeland war bonds for Ukraine drive coming along in Canuckistan?
You can’t be world leader with $31 Trillion in debt.
The rest of world knows the US and Biden are weak right now.
Between the divided politics, the weakened military, the “woke” companies and all the issues we have, the other major players in the world are making their move to weaken the US further and then our country slowly dies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.