- Saudi Arabia wants to bring several states lining the Red Sea and
Gulf of Aden into a bloc to improve trade and maritime navigation,
according to state-run media.
Saudi
King Salman bin Abdulaziz met at his Riyadh palace with foreign
ministry officials from Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and
Jordan “to look into establishing an entity for Arab and African states
on the Red Sea coast,” Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday. They
discussed ways to promote commerce and investment, as well as to protect
shipping, Al Ekhbariya said. Saudi Arabia wants to bring several states lining the Red Sea and
Gulf of Aden into a bloc to improve trade and maritime navigation, according to state-run media.
Saudi
King Salman bin Abdulaziz met at his Riyadh palace with foreign
ministry officials from Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and
Jordan “to look into establishing an entity for Arab and African states
on the Red Sea coast,” Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday. They
discussed ways to promote commerce and investment, as well as to protect
shipping, Al Ekhbariya said.
Gulf states have been taking a more active role in the Horn
of Africa, which got a special mention in the communique issued at the
end of Sunday’s Gulf Cooperation Council summit.
Saudi Arabia, for example, brokered
a peace deal in September between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Eritrea is
located near the near Bab el-Mandeb, a shipping choke-point on the Red
Sea used by oil tankers and other cargo vessels en route to Europe and
the U.S. through the Suez Canal.
The United Arab Emirates has also been expanding its footprint
in the region, though it wasn’t included in the grouping. Ethiopia and
the breakaway republic of Somaliland, two countries with which the
U.A.E. has good relations, also appear to have been excluded.
Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are both part of a military
coalition seeking to restore a friendly government in Yemen ousted by
rebel fighters. Parties to the conflict are meeting in Sweden under U.S.
pressure to agree to a cease-fire.
By Abbas Al Lawati/Bloomberg
— With assistance by Zainab Fattah
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