Saudi Oil Decision Exposes More Failed British Diplomacy

Saudi Oil Decision ExposesMore Failed British Diplomacy

Saudi Arabia is following the example of Russia by mocking Britain’s permissive, pro-trade policies, say Sam Bright and Sian Norris

The OPEC Plus cartel of the world’s largest oil producers has agreed to cut its output by two million barrels, in an attempt to raise prices – threatening efforts in the West to limit the large energy revenues enjoyed by Vladimir Putin’s regime.

It’s understood that the decision was agreed between Russia and Saudi Arabia, acting as leaders of the group, which said the decision to cut production was made “in light of the uncertainty that surrounds the global economic and oil market outlooks”.

With Saudi Arabia now seemingly willing to openly support the financing of Russia – which is currently waging a war against Britain’s close ally Ukraine – the rationale of the UK’s close relationship with the Gulf state must surely be called into question.

Echoing her predecessor Boris Johnson, Prime Minister Liz Truss has repeatedly signalled her support for the Saudi regime, despite its poor reputation on human rights. Speaking of the UK relationship with Saudi Arabia, Truss said the country is an “important partner”. Despite telling the Foreign Affairs Select Committee in June that she had challenged Gulf leaders on their human rights record, Truss has yet to provide an example of doing so. 

The closeness with which the UK holds Saudi Arabia was illustrated by three key visits to the country by current and former UK ministers this year: the now Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in January while he was serving as Business Secretary; former Secretary for Digital Media Culture and Sport Nadine Dorries in February; and Prime Minister Boris Johnson in March, during which he (unsuccessfully, as we now know) attempted to secure oil supplies following Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

According to a heavily redacted Freedom of Information request, Kwarteng’s visit was intended to “promote investment in the UK’s clean energy sectors”, by meeting with Saudi representatives and large domestic firms including Sabic and Alfanar. 

Kwarteng’s flights, and those of his special advisors, his private secretary and a policy official, were paid for by the UK Government, with accommodation and other expenses funded by the Saudi Energy Ministry. 

Alfanar is described in the document as “one the largest Saudi investors we are actively supporting to invest in the UK”. That investment includes £2.4 million of Department for Transport funding for aviation fuel; and £1 billion investment in Teesside.

A meeting with Sabic also focused on the company’s investment in the UK, including its own investment in Teesside, where last October it decided to invest up to £850 million, creating and safeguarding 1,000 jobs as part of plans to decarbonise and re-open the Wilton Cracker power plant.

Minutes from Kwarteng’s January trip reported that “Saudi Arabia is a vital economic partner to the UK”. The notes stated that “increased cooperation with Saudi Arabia will help unlock further inward investment and commercial opportunities linked to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030” – an effort to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels.

In a meeting with Dr Majid Al Qasabi, Saudi’s Minister of Commerce and Acting Minister of Media, Kwarteng was instructed by officials to “reaffirm the UK’s commitment to deepening our relationship with Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region”. 

As previously reported by Byline Times, the Government has seen capital from Saudi Arabia and Qatar – largely stumped up by their respective regimes – as a way of delivering ‘levelling up’ projects in left behind areas of the UK.

It was not on Kwarteng’s agenda to challenge the acting media minister about the Kingdom’s record on locking up bloggers and journalists: currently 26 journalists are in prison in the Gulf state. Nor did the non-redacted sections of the document suggest raising the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose brutal killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2018 was approved by Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman, according to US intelligence agencies.

And while the minutes of Kwarteng’s trip praised how “women’s rights continue to improve dramatically”, they failed to mention the imprisonment and alleged torture of leading women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who was released from detention in 2021.

As well as discussing how to strengthen energy relationships, the minutes from Kwarteng’s trip highlight the increasingly close ties between Saudi and UK educational institutions. These include three UK-branded independent schools in the region, and partnerships between UK universities and the Princess Nourah University, King Saud University and Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University.

Kwarteng was told to “re-affirm the UK’s commitment to increasing UK-Saudi student mobility”.  Eight months later, Leeds University student Salma al-Shehab was sentenced to prison for 34 years by the Saudi regime over her use of Twitter.

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‘They Should Find Another Friend’

Further collaboration was encouraged during Dorries’ visit to Saudi Arabia the following month, with the two countries signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding cultural collaboration. The MOU, obtained via a Freedom of Information request submitted by Byline Times, promotes participation and collaboration across museums, arts, music, literature, art, publishing, architecture and design. It allows for the “exchange of officials and experts in various cultural fields”. 

Dorries was followed by Boris Johnson, who tried and failed to secure commitments from the regime to step-up its oil production, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Such attempts have been further undermined by the decision of both Saudi and Russian OPEC representatives to cut two million barrels of oil. 

Johnson claimed in August, during his penultimate month as Prime Minister, that the UK must pay the price for peace through higher energy bills. This price has inflated, the strain on families and the public purse worsened, as a result of the decision taken by Britain’s ostensible ally Saudi Arabia.

During her first speech to the Conservative Party conference as Prime Minister, Liz Truss warned that the UK had “become too complacent” and “too dependent on authoritarian regimes for cheap goods and energy”. Her comments referred to Russia and, arguably, China.

But far from “making sure this will never happen again”, the Conservative Party seems more than happy to forge close ties with Saudi Arabia, which is buttressing Russia and its campaign of violence against the people of Ukraine.

Indeed, the close ties forged over a number of years between the UK and Saudi Arabia tell a terrible story of lessons unlearned: the reliance on an authoritarian regime with questionable human rights records, under the false assumption that open trade and a permissive diplomatic approach would cause it to align with Western liberal interests.

Responding to a question about the execution of three people by the Saudi state as he arrived in the Kingdom in March, Johnson said: “In spite of that news you’ve referred to today, things are changing in Saudi Arabia. We want to see them continue to change and that’s why we see value in engaging with Saudi Arabia and why we see value in the partnership.”

Johnson mirrored the remarks made a decade earlier, in 2011, by his predecessor David Cameron during an address in Moscow. Cameron said: “We can rebuild the relationship between Britain and Russia, working together to develop a modern and ambitious partnership which will help both our countries achieve a more prosperous and secure future.”

A variety of cultural and trade trips were subsequently embarked upon by UK representatives – a UK Trade and Investment visit to Ekaterinburg in September 2013, for example, for the opening of a new JCB plant on the outskirts of the city. The UK even approved £54.9 million of the export licenses to Russia between 2010 and 2014 – £37.9 million more than to Ukraine.

Yet, this diplomatic illusion shattered in 2014, following Putin’s invasion and annexation of Crimea, before the Russia President launched his full-scale assault on Ukraine in February this year.

The wealth generated by the UK in Russia is now sanctioned, and the country’s oil is tainted by the deaths of Ukrainian civilians, with Johnson back in March seeking oil from, and now Truss nurturing a partnership with, Saudi terror instead.

As well as the imprisonment of journalists, the murder of dissidents, mass public executions, and the alleged rape of women’s rights activists, the Saudi regime has been engulfed in a proxy war in Yemen. Since 2015, there have been 10,917 civilian casualties including 55 children in 708 incidents of explosive weapon use in the country by Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-led coalition, and Saudi-backed militants. Of those casualties, just under half (5,219) were killed.

The UN has estimated that the war in Yemen had killed 377,000 people by the end of 2021 – and yet the UK Government has approved £11 billion in export licenses for military goods to Saudi Arabia since 2010 – comfortably the largest total of any country in the world, with the second-placed US standing at £6.3 billion, ahead of France at £4.6 billion.

The UK’s approach, to both Russia and Saudi Arabia, has been conducted in lock-step with the United States. It appears that members of Congress are increasingly uncomfortable with their Government’s soft approach to the Kingdom, however, following the OPEC announcement.

Democrat Tom Malinowski told Politico that, “We have to stop acting like the suckers in this relationship, and re-establish that the services we provide to these countries require them to take our legitimate interests and concerns into account. And if they’re not willing to do that, then they should find another friend.”

Time will tell whether a similar attitude will percolate through Parliament.

A UK Government spokesperson said: “It is vital that we work internationally to achieve stability in global energy markets to combat high energy prices and inflation. The UK Government is working to deepen the sanctions we have imposed on Russia to ensure that it faces the costs of its unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine”.