This past weekend saw Saudi Arabia playing a central role in gathering senior officials and representatives from over 40 countries in the port city of Jeddah to discuss Ukraine’s Peace Plan. This meeting is the second of its kind following the last gathering in Copenhagen in June.
While Russia and Ukraine refuse to negotiate directly, such gatherings are helpful to work toward achieving progress toward ending the conflict.
While the Copenhagen summit did not attract high-level officials and had no concrete outcome, the Jeddah summit produced tangible steps to resolve the conflict by setting up working groups at the national security adviser level.
China — represented by Li Hui, the special representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs — responded positively and welcomed the idea of having a third meeting on the same level as the Jeddah summit. This is another step forward for China to play a constructive role in the search for common ground on the conflict since Li’s trip to Ukraine, Russia, and several European countries in May.
Meanwhile, as Saudi Arabia exercises its growing strategic autonomy, it is eager to demonstrate how decentralised power is redefining the global security landscape which is demonstrated by the Middle East's ability to attract well-matched state actors to its capitals.
Saudi Arabia, in particular, is able to leverage its national strength to chart a path to gradually become a major power of global influence by adopting a foreign and security policy approach based on its own national interests. The level of agility in Saudi Arabia’s external policy and actions demonstrates its effectiveness on the global stage.
