A local resident works in a damaged house of Valentina Ostapenko in Topol's'ke village, Kharkiv region on Aug 5, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)
The meeting of national security advisers hosted by Saudi Arabia over the weekend to explore pathways to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict signals a shift to a multipolar world order characterized by more flexibility, analysts said.
They said the attendees in Jeddah, who came from 40 countries and organizations, including China and the United Nations, are getting increasingly tired of the long-standing conflict between Moscow and Kyiv while noticing China’s role.
The dialogue did not include any representatives from Russia but Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow “will keep an eye on the peace meeting on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia”, Russian news agency TASS reported
“Saudi Arabia wants to play a mediator role in this conflict. This role has been (at the) core of Saudi foreign policy,” Mehmet Rakipoglu, a Turkiye-based Gulf analyst, told China Daily.
READ MORE: Jeddah talks on Ukraine crisis conclude, highlight peace efforts
Rasha Al Joundy, senior researcher at the Dubai Public Policy Research Centre in the United Arab Emirates, told China Daily that the meeting’s context in general simply indicates that all parties “are tired from this conflict and having harsh political bills domestically”.
“Furthermore, there are economic problems, the new crisis in Niger, the escalations against Russian territory … all of these elements could lead to a serious pursuit of peace,” said Al Joundy.
The two-day talks – chaired by Saudi Minister of State and National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed Al-Aiban – started on Aug 5.
The talks ended with calls for continuing international efforts to build a common ground for peace, while participants also welcomed the importance of benefiting from different views and suggestions.
Before the meeting, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that Beijing stands ready to work with the international community and continue to play a constructive role in seeking a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.
Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui attended the meeting. Experts welcomed China’s participation.
“China contributes to global efforts in terms of mediation. The presence of China in this summit proves that Riyadh-Beijing ties are based on mutual trust,” said Rakipoglu from Turkiye.
Al Joundy from Dubai said China’s presence “gave the meeting an important weight and gave the moderate states a powerful position” which could help convince Russia and Ukraine to accept a peace deal and stop military operations.
The dialogue did not include any representatives from Russia but Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow “will keep an eye on the peace meeting on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia”, Russian news agency TASS reported.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Jeddah meeting “will not be useless” if “it helps the West realize that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's so-called peace plan is a dead end”.
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff of Ukraine's presidential office, said in a statement that the meeting's participants had conducted "very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and lasting peace should be built," Xinhua News Agency reported.
“The absence of Russia is not intended in a negative way. On the contrary, I think Saudi Arabia is betting on its good relations with both parties to push for peace, and it wants to set the international political scene before suggesting any meeting between Russia and other players hostile to Russia,” said Al Joundy from Dubai.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the hosting of the meeting marked “a continuation of the humanitarian initiatives and efforts in this regard by Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud”, who is also the Saudi Prime Minister, and the communications made with the Russian and Ukrainian leaderships since the early days of the crisis.
Riyadh expressed its readiness to exert its good offices to contribute to reaching a solution “that will result in permanent peace”, the statement said, underlining Saudi support for “all efforts and initiatives aiming to reduce the impact of the crisis and its humanitarian repercussions”.
“What is clear is that after the Ukraine crisis, the world (would be) witnessing a multipolar world order characterized by more flexibility and political freedom. Similarly, power in this order is more fluid and it is an opportunity for regional powers such as Saudi Arabia to play their part,” Mohammad Salami, an associate researcher at the International Institute for Global Strategic Analysis in Islamabad, Pakistan, told China Daily.
READ MORE: China's role in Jeddah meet for Ukraine hailed
He said Saudi Arabia was pursuing two economic and political targets at the same time. Economically, the new order “helps Riyadh pursue its Vision 2030” strategy by relying on more countries that are characterized by being non-Western and Eastern.
“China, Russia, Brazil, and India are economic powers that in some cases have less restrictions on technology transfer and investment in various industrial sectors of Saudi Arabia and, like the West, they do not consider economic participation to be subject to political preconditions,” said Salami.
“In the political sphere, Riyadh's focus is on increasing soft power, self-reliance, regionalism, and setting a new foreign policy to increase maneuverability in regional and international developments,” he added.
Contact the writer at jan@chinadailyapac.com