That music of Riyadh is sophisticated, and it stays in the ears of many.
Just like Beethoven’s music that Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman (at the time Deputy Crown Prince) played on the piano in September 2015 at a Ramadan dinner at the home of then US Secretary of State John Kerry (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/world/rise-of-saudi-prince-shatters-decades-of-royal-tradition.html).
Many notes have been played since then.
Today, the Crown Prince of the largest Sunni monarchy in the world, at the same time the world’s key oil exporter, Mohammed bin Salman (40), is making an official visit to the USA on November 18, for the first time since 2018.
The question is whether there will be time for the piano this time: artificial intelligence, defence, nuclear cooperation, trade… are unofficially some of the topics in the repertoire.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is today the first Arab country to introduce the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, which possesses an atomic bomb, onto the unpredictable stage of the Middle East. Thus, with the signature of Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia entered a defence alliance with Pakistan for the second time, shocking numerous actors in the region and observers around the world with this move. By the way, as far back as 1967, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan formed a defence alliance two months after Israel’s victory in the “Six-Day War”. More than half a century later, a new defence alliance between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan was made official just days after Israel targeted with remarkable precision the location of a secret meeting of the Hamas leadership in Doha, the capital of Qatar, to the consternation of the hosts, many neighbours and others.
If one of the two members of that alliance is attacked, the other commits to react. This is roughly the key item of the document signed on September 17.
Did Riyadh inform Washington beforehand about this move, tickles the curiosity of many. Where is the official Islamabad in the eyes of Washington is a delicate question.
Meanwhile, some reports state that –during the recent session of the UN General Assembly, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir waited for one hour to meet with US President Donald Trump on September 26 ( https://www.wionews.com/world/pak-pm-shehbaz-sharif-s-long-wait-for-trump-dubbed-as-welcomed-on-red-carpet-in-islamabad-1758878496218).
Be that as it may, official Islamabad assessed the meeting as a “red carpet welcome”. A little later, unconfirmed media reports appeared according to which Islamabad indicated to Washington the possibility of cooperation on the construction of a strategic port on the Arabian Sea, “a step away” from Iran.
As things stand now, before his November trip to Washington, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will welcome Pakistani Prime Minister Shebhaz Sharif in Riyadh (October 27-29). One of the officially announced topics of the meeting between Mohammed bin Salman and Shebhaz Sharif is “geopolitical shifts”.
Which “shifts”, it is not specified.
