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Brics
This Week in AsiaPolitics

New Brics members Saudi Arabia, UAE taking ‘a step away’ from US, seeking global roles

  • With their accession to the Brics group, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will be able to act more independently of the US, according to analysts
  • The move is part of the two Middle Eastern states’ efforts to diversify their partnerships and take on more global leadership roles

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Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud at the 2023 Brics summit in Johannesburg on Thursday. Photo: AP
Tom HussainandAmy Sood
The successful bids of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Middle East’s two largest economies, to join the Brics group has strengthened their ability to act independently of their long-standing security guarantor the United States, analysts said.
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Membership of Brics – a grouping of developing economies that earlier included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – will also boost the oil-wealthy Gulf monarchies’ efforts to diversify their partnerships as they seek to be accepted as global economic powers, the experts said.

Alongside the two Gulf nations, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt and Argentina were also invited as the Brics bloc pledged to champion the “Global South”.

While keen not to be seen as promoting an anti-West alliance, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have effectively “taken a step away” from Washington by attaining Brics membership, Middle East observers said.

Kristin Diwan, a senior resident scholar of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said Saudi Arabia and the UAE were “eager to diversify and deepen their global partnerships independent from US dominance”.

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They are looking for a “more neutral global playing field where independent sovereign countries can choose their partnerships” pragmatically and based on particular interests, she told This Week In Asia.

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