Russia and Arabs agree on US, spar over Iran
The Moscow-hosted fifth ministerial meeting between Russia and the Arab League exposed some disagreements but helped bring Russia and the Arabs closer on other issues.
On April 16, Moscow hosted the fifth ministerial session of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum, which was attended by an unprecedented number of top Arab diplomats. Organized by the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Arab League, the meeting testified to a self-evident fact: Relations between Russia and the Arab world seem cordial, at least when it comes to their disagreement over the US vision of a world order. This happy idyll, however, is illusory, as the relationships are riddled with differences, many of which are rooted in the discord within the Arab camp itself.
The conference in Moscow produced two documents: a declaration and a three-year action plan. The latter covers cooperation opportunities for businesses, nongovernmental organizations and academia in different spheres, ranging from the economy to culture. As for the specifics, they include a commitment to participating in various trade show exhibitions for the manufacturing and food industry. Both documents were made available to Al-Monitor.
The Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum was inaugurated in December 2009 by a Cairo memorandum. The forum is tasked with coordinating positions on international issues and encouraging stronger bilateral relations. However, the first ministerial session took place years after the forum's inception, in February 2013, at the height of the Arab Spring and after Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin. The succeeding meetings were held in Khartoum (late 2014), Moscow (February 2016) and Abu Dhabi (February 2017).
The original idea was to hold sessions annually, but the plan was scrapped amid the rift between Qatar, on the one hand, and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, on the other. Now the opposing sides are often seen at the same meetings. Indeed, both Qatar’s emir and Saudi Arabia’s king were present at the March Arab League summit in Tunisia. This time, the two countries dispatched to Moscow state ministers for foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir and Soltan bin Saad al-Muraikhi, respectively.
