{"id":242605,"date":"2025-02-19T22:13:05","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T22:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/why-all-roads-lead-through-riyadh-as-saudi-arabia-emerges-as-key-global-power-broker\/"},"modified":"2025-02-19T22:13:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T22:13:05","slug":"why-all-roads-lead-through-riyadh-as-saudi-arabia-emerges-as-key-global-power-broker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/why-all-roads-lead-through-riyadh-as-saudi-arabia-emerges-as-key-global-power-broker\/","title":{"rendered":"Why all roads lead through Riyadh – as Saudi Arabia emerges as key global power broker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Why<\/div>


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At the Faena Hotel on Miami Beach, at breakfast, I overheard the conversation on the next table.<\/p>\n

“Trump<\/strong><\/a> is creating instability”, one man said to the other, who disagreed.<\/p>\n

It was a good natured but forthright debate that cut to the heart of a global divide right now about the language and actions of the world’s most powerful man.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n A Saudi-run investment forum has been taking place in Miami
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The two men were guests at a Saudi-run investment forum taking place over the next three days here in Miami.<\/p>\n

The Future Investment Initiative (FII) is sometimes described as ‘Davos in the desert’.<\/p>\n

The principal conference takes place every year in Saudi Arabia<\/strong><\/a>. It’s run by the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund and describes itself as “an annual event bringing people together to invest in the most promising solutions”.<\/p>\n

This Miami event is an offshoot of the Riyadh conference and it draws the very wealthiest from the world of finance, tech, innovation, politics, philanthropy and beyond.<\/p>\n

I recognised one of the men at breakfast as a billionaire philanthropist. I’ll protect his identity given his conversation was private. But, safe to say, Mr Trump is the talk of the conference.<\/p>\n

The seminars over the next three days – or ‘invite-only conclaves’ as they are described – hit all the notes of the moment.<\/p>\n

“Do states own the oceans?”, “The end of multilateralism and what it means for the world”, “How to create resilient economies for uncertain times”, and “Is a new era of US-Middle East economic cooperation dawning?” were among the topics being discussed.<\/p>\n

That last event bills Trump’s point man\/dealmaker for the Middle East (and Russia-Ukraine<\/strong><\/a>), Steve Witkoff as the main speaker. The moderator is Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and the man who first raised the prospect of a ‘Gaza Riviera’.<\/p>\n

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\ud83d\udc49Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim on your podcast app<\/strong>\ud83d\udc48<\/a><\/p>\n

The first speaker at the event was the American president himself. Donald Trump is determined to see massive Saudi investment in America to the tune of $1tn (\u00a3794bn). In return, he is investing in Riyadh too.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia, hosts of this glitzy event, has emerged as a key global power broker. The Tuesday Russia<\/strong><\/a>-US talks were in Riyadh. The expected Trump-Putin meeting will be there too.<\/p>\n

Since Donald Trump was last president, the kingdom has matured and emboldened its geopolitical clout. Back in his first term, Mr Trump recognised the value (literally) in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

This time, Saudi Arabia is harnessing Mr Trump’s power. They know money talks and that he likes to be kept close.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia is playing a strategic geopolitical game and it’s plainly transactional.<\/p>\n

Essentially, it is saying “we want to invest, we want you to, but we also have our own agenda in regional diplomacy”.<\/p>\n

On the Middle East<\/strong><\/a>, Saudi red lines over Gaza<\/strong><\/a> and the prospects of Arab diplomatic normalisation with Israel<\/strong><\/a> are a backstop to a total Trump-Netanyahu wipeout of the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

More from Sky News:<\/strong>
Starmer backs Zelenskyy<\/strong><\/a>
Ukraine is ‘fighting on two fronts’<\/a>
Trump ‘disappointed’ by Ukraine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

On Ukraine-Russia, the Saudis are more than happy to host as mediators. It puts them centre stage.<\/p>\n

On Iran, they have buried the hatchet with the supreme leader and could play a key role in any new nuclear deal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

There was a time when the diplomatic roads ran through the obvious places; Washington, London, Brussels, Berlin, Paris. Now, it’s Florida and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Brussels, London, Berlin, Paris and even the opposition in Washington are wholly left out.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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At the Faena Hotel on Miami Beach, at breakfast, I overheard the conversation on the next table. “Trump is creating instability”, one man said to the other, who disagreed. It was a good natured but forthright debate that cut to the heart of a global divide right now about the language and actions of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/02\/768x432\/skynews-miami-saudi-arabia_6834098.jpg?20250219210510","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8577,39983,15890,377,2733,872,2974,104609,6777,8576],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242607,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242605\/revisions\/242607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}