Build bridges, not walls: Nazarbayev in Riyadh

25.10.2016

The Kazakh President makes a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia during which he met with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and several other officials and business persons.

Details

Nursultan Nazarbayev arrived in Saudi Arabia yesterday afternoon. He went to pray at the mosque of the Prophet Muhammed in Medina, then flew to Riyadh for the official part of the visit.

In addition to meeting with the king of Saudi Arabia, he will meet with Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Al Saud, Defense Minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the newly appointed President of the Islamic Development Bank, Bandar bin Mohammed Hajar.

They plan to sign several bilateral documents.

Eurasian bridge

Nursulatan Nazarbayev played a big role in the reconciliation between Russia and Turkey.

In addition to this meeting at the highest level in Saudi Arabia, the citizens of the country were shown a film about the first visit by Nazarbayev Riyadh and Medina. All of this speaks to the great expectations from the upcoming meeting.

In addition, it is the first foreign visit of Nazarbayev after an illness, because of which he had to cancel a trip to Azerbaijan and Armenia for a CSTO meeting.

The warming of relations

In recent years, there is an increasing warming between Saudi Arabia, Eurasia and some other countries, which have not previously had particularly strong ties with Riyadh. For example, Japan and Saudi Arabia created a large investment fund, regulatory measures for the financing of projects, including Russia and China. Informal secret meetings with the leadership of Israel, which creates a free trade zone with the EAEC and enters into the Eurasian Development Bank, received the status of informal consultations.

At the same time this strengthens the traditional relations of Riyadh and Islamabad, which in turn, also builds relations with Moscow,  not through Central Asia, as it was before, but directly.

Saudi Arabia is actively is buying US government bonds, which caused a sharp fall in the value of US securities. This economic operation Riyadh holds together with Beijing.