Cairo plan a good start, but not a final destination

2025-03-10 03:41:00

International analysts would be well advised to keep a close eye on what happens in Saudi Arabia over the next few weeks, as it seems some of today’s most pressing global problems might be resolved in the Kingdom.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to arrive in the Kingdom on Monday for meetings with the Saudi leadership, hopefully to officially kick-start a series of talks that might put an end to the devastating Russian-Ukrainian war.

This is no coincidence but rather the direct result of years of trust-building and back-channeling, at which Saudi Arabia has excelled.

While Riyadh condemned the Russian aggression against Ukraine at the UN, it maintained, and despite criticisms, close and solid diplomatic relations with Moscow, not just to support the OPEC+ agreement, which guarantees oil market stability at a time of grave inflation, but because it knew that at some point the international community was going to need an adult in the room.

Shortly afterward, the Saudi approach resulted in two prisoner swaps, with both the Russians and Ukrainians thanking Riyadh for its successful efforts.