Karim Benzema in Riyadh, Mohammed bin Salman in Paris. Saudi Arabia everywhere. In this spring of 2023, the Wahhabi kingdom is not content to upset world sport, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars from planetary stars like Cristiano Ronaldo. Riyadh is also establishing itself as a key player on the international scene, allowing itself to invite Volodymyr Zelensky to the summit of the Arab League, to obtain a ceasefire in Sudan and to send Joe Biden or Vladimir Poutin back to the ropes. on oil prices.
A visit to France almost without indignation
Five years after his banishment, caused by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Crown Prince MBS can rest easy in his Parisian palaces. Unlike his previous visit, in the summer of 2022, his presence in France raises few questions about being received with the honors of an autocrat, for a week, in the self-proclaimed homeland of human rights. As if moral indignation had had its day.
France and the West have no choice but to curry favor with Riyadh’s strongman and keep him away from the long arms of Putin, the only head of state to hug the young prince after the assassination of Khashoggi in 2018. During their lunch at the Élysée, this Friday, Emmanuel Macron will try to attract him to the Western side, by discussing “major international issues, in particular the war in Ukraine and its consequences for the rest of the world” , according to French diplomacy. The two men must also prepare the Summit for a new global financial pact, which will bring together the main actors of the “Global South” in Paris next week.
Through its economic, energy and now diplomatic power, Saudi Arabia is establishing itself as the balancing power of the moment. A bridge between Asia, Europe and Africa. “Mohammed bin Salman sees his country at the center of the new world, connecting all continents,” notes Simon Chadwick, professor of geopolitics at Skema Business School.
In its cold war with China and Russia, the West can no longer do without this ally. As authoritarian as he is.