The United States and Saudi Arabia, the allies, have been a bit fierce recently.
Regardless of the appeal of the United States, Saudi Arabia responded to the request of “OPEC+” including Russia, and cut oil production to stabilize oil prices, which made the United States very angry: Saudi Arabia is maintaining international oil prices at this time, which makes European energy tight, but Russia can make money. Ukraine conflict. Saudi Arabia’s approach is not like an ally, but more like an enemy, so Biden angrily said that Saudi Arabia will “bear serious consequences” for this, and Democrats in the US Congress threatened to sanction Saudi Arabia.
This attitude made Turkish President Erdogan look down on it, accusing the United States of bullying its allies. Of course, Saudi Arabia feels that the United States does not need to: Saudi Arabia’s decision to increase production and cut production is based on market judgments, not politics; after Saudi Arabia and “OPEC+” decided to cut production, the market’s response was flat, and crude oil prices hovered at $85 to $90 per barrel, or even A slight drop (while the Saudis most want a price of 90-100 dollars), it shows that the United States is angry in vain. What’s more, Saudi Arabia fought an energy price war with Russia two years ago. In short, Saudi Arabia decides whether to increase or decrease production based on business rather than international relations.
But neither side seems willing to understand the other, and it is foreseeable that the United States and Saudi Arabia will be the best on this issue for a while. Because to put it bluntly, the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, the allies, is actually quite awkward.
Unlike the Atlantic Alliance, the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is not based on like-mindedness. The two countries come together purely because of interests: the United States supports Saudi Arabia in terms of security, sells weapons to it, and helps it fight against Iran; Saudi Arabia is in terms of energy security. Help America. Under this general trend, if we only talk about interests, the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia will be relatively stable, and we can even talk about friendship. This is roughly the case during the Trump administration, for example. With Biden in power, the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia will not be so smooth.
First of all, the diplomacy of American Democrats loves to talk about values and human rights, and Biden is no exception. The values of the United States and Saudi Arabia can be described as far apart. The American people have always had the question of “why should they support an Islamic country with an absolute monarchy?” Crown Prince Mohammad is suspected of being involved in the case of dismembering the media person Khashoggi, which makes Biden even more The government has threatened to sanction Saudi officials involved in the case. Fighting against values with friends of interest will definitely embarrass both parties.
Second, the United States often brings domestic political factors into international relations, which has a huge impact on US-Saudi relations. A researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, a consistently pro-Republican party, said Trump is a “expert” in this regard. During his presidency, Trump has been building a narrative that the Republicans are friends with Saudi Arabia and the Democrats are friends with Iran. This is of course not true, but the confrontation between the two parties in the United States and the practice of undermining each other has indeed affected the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Another point of influence of domestic politics in the United States is that when elections come, politicians always have to appear tougher in terms of foreign relations. This time, Saudi Arabia decided to cut oil production, and Biden and the Democrats were furious. One of the reasons is that the Biden administration is facing the problem of rising oil prices in the United States, and the mid-term elections are coming soon. In desperation, why do they care about Saudi Arabia’s argument that “the market determines policy”?
Another factor is that the personalities of the leaders and their impressions of each other may also affect the relationship between the two countries. Crown Prince Mohammed, who is actually in power in Saudi Arabia now, is a powerful figure. And Trump seems to have a good impression of powerful people, and he is full of praise. What’s more, it is said that his son-in-law Kushner and Crown Prince Mohammed also “hit it off”. This will undoubtedly help US-Saudi relations. The difference between Biden’s philosophy and personality and the Saudi crown prince is probably no less than the difference in values between the two countries.
Of course, national interests often override diplomatic disputes. Although the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has been stalemate recently because of the differences in the values and personalities of the rulers, the common interests between the countries still exist, so the two sides will eventually get better and continue to benefit from cooperation.
