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Saudis look to Russia for
arms
By Thalif Deen
NEW
YORK - Saudi Arabia, a traditionally authoritarian
regime that recently held the first Western-style
local elections in its 73-year history, is trying
to break new ground by turning to Russia for arms
purchases.
As one of the world's biggest
single weapons buyers, the family-run kingdom has
militarily depended on the United States, which
has supplied over US$80 billion in arms since
1950.
According to the Russian news agency
Itar-Tass, Moscow is now getting ready to clinch
its "first major defense contract" with Saudi
Arabia, a fervently Islamic and avowedly
anti-communist and pro-Western country.
The Saudi decision to diversify its
sources of weaponry comes at a time when
Washington has downgraded its military
relationship by relocating over 6,000 US troops
from Saudi Arabia to neighboring Qatar.
"There are clear strains in
the US-Saudi relationship," says Natalie J
Goldring, executive director of the Security
Studies Program at the Edmund A Walsh School of
Foreign Service at Georgetown University. "But
this story is likely to be more important
politically than militarily. The Saudi military is
dependent on the United States for its core
weapons, as well as for critically important spare
parts and training," Goldring told
IPS.
Tom Baranauskas, a
military analyst covering the Middle East at the
Connecticut-based Forecast International, told IPS
that the six Arab nations comprising the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC), namely Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), are increasingly buying Russian
equipment, such as missile air defense systems.
There is a major emphasis now on
integrating command and control for these states -
especially air defense - to counter Iran, he said.
"The deal with Russia thus could be GCC-related,
with the Saudis moving toward commonality with air
defense systems such as the S-300s being procured
by the UAE," Baranauskas said.
He pointed
out that there is also an ongoing major Saudi
procurement program worth about US$900 million to
re-equip the country's National Guard. This
includes negotiations to buy some 1,000 US armored
vehicles and 200 Spanish BMR-600 armored personnel
carriers, at a value of about $440 million.
"As far as I know, this deal has not been
finalized, and I could definitely see the Saudis
buying Russian armored cars, especially for a
paramilitary force like the National Guard.
However, this modernization program may be relying
to some extent on US assistance funds, which would
make procuring Russian equipment problematical,"
he added.
The National Guard's
modernization program also includes artillery, for
which a contractor has not yet been selected, and
the army is looking at several options for
expanding its self-propelled artillery fleet, he
said.
Sergei Chemezov, director general of
the Russian state-owned Rosoboronexport, was
quoted as saying that the proposed deal with Saudi
Arabia was part of its strategy to diversify
Russia's arms buyers, away from China and India.
Both countries are major buyers of Russian weapons
systems.
In 2004, Russia sold unspecified
quantities of armored trucks to Riyadh. But
current negotiations are said to involve the sale
of "lethal equipment", including aircraft, battle
tanks and air defense systems, according to Middle
East Newsline based in Abu Dhabi.
Russia
already sells arms to several Middle Eastern
nations, including Iran, Kuwait, Yemen and the
UAE.
When Kuwait, another major buyer of
US arms, decided to diversify its purchases by
buying $600 million to $800 million worth of
military equipment from Russia back in 1994,
Washington expressed strong reservations. The US
State Department said it placed a premium on
"interoperability of weapons systems for maximum
efficiency and capability". A mix of Russian and
American weapons would undermine this, it warned.
Despite price fluctuations in the world
oil market, Saudi Arabia has maintained an average
annual military budget of over $19 billion. But
skyrocketing oil prices - rising from about $40
per barrel in 2004 to a high of $55 last week -
could trigger an increase in arms purchases by the
kingdom.
Goldring told IPS that Russia's
willingness to supply weapons to Saudi Arabia is
not a new phenomenon. "To date, however, their
desire to sell has far outweighed their actual
success," she added.
There has been
significant press attention to supposed Russian
inroads in the Middle Eastern arms bazaar.
However, the US remains the region's dominant
supplier, Goldring said.
In recent years,
for example, Russia's chief customers in the
region have been Algeria, the UAE and Yemen, each
accounting for roughly $400 million in weapons
agreements over a four-year period, according to
the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in
Washington, which tracks US weapons sales
overseas.
By contrast, during the same
period, the US reached agreements to sell $7.1
billion worth of weapons to the UAE, $6.2 billion
to Egypt, $5.1 billion to Israel, and $2.7 billion
to Saudi Arabia.
Goldring said the US
continues to dominate the international weapons
trade, as well as weapons sales to the Middle East
region.
In recent years, according to CRS,
the US has accounted for more than 75% of arms
sales agreements to the region, while the Russians
have been limited to less than 10% of that market.
"I expect the United States to continue to
dominate weapons sales to the region for the
foreseeable future," Goldring said.
But
she pointed out that Russia has substantial
financial and political incentives to broaden and
deepen its access to international weapons
markets. China and India account for a reported
75-80% of Russia's recent weapons sales. "In the
end, however, this fight over market share
obscures the most important issue. The United
States and the other major weapons suppliers
continue to exercise little restraint in selling
advanced weapons to the highest bidder," Goldring
added.
(Inter Press
Service) |
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