Gulf oil states are using their vast wealth to build influence across the far-flung South Pacific, experts have told reporters, tearing a page straight out of China’s Belt and Road playbook.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — two of the world’s biggest crude oil producers — have been ramping up efforts to shed their reputations as global climate laggards.
Both have been lavishing money and attention on small, isolated and often indebted Pacific nations, where rising sea levels are already creeping up on low-lying coastal communities.
Photo: AFP
Businessman Milroy Cainton, who was recently appointed as Vanuatu’s special envoy to the UAE, said it was clear the Gulf states wanted friends in the Pacific.
“There are some good things they see in the South Pacific,” he said. “We are getting big help from them, as well as from China.”
Since 2015, the UAE says it has spent at least US$50 million on infrastructure projects throughout the Pacific islands, typically focused on renewable energy. Emirati petrodollars have funded a wind farm in Samoa, water storage facilities in the Marshall Islands, and solar power projects in Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands.
One of the most conspicuous examples sits smack in the middle of Vanuatu’s leafy capital, Port Vila, where a UAE-funded solar farm keeps the lights on inside the country’s parliament.
“It’s one of the largest-scale renewable energy projects in Vanuatu,” Cainton said. “The relationship is progressing big time with clean energy.”
Saudi Arabia has sought to establish diplomatic relations with a clutch of its own Pacific partners, including Tuvalu and Fiji in 2015, Tonga in 2020, Vanuatu last year and the Cook Islands in April.
It has built a particularly warm relationship with the Solomon Islands — pledging US$8 million this month to help it prepare for the Pacific Games in the capital, Honiara.
A host of Pacific dignitaries traveled to the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, earlier this year, where they discussed issues such as climate financing with counterparts from the Arab League.
Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have become increasingly prominent players on the international stage. They have snapped up high-profile sporting franchises, lured the biggest entertainers to perform in their cities and become more assertive in their foreign policy. Both have made headline-grabbing commitments to renewable energy, and the UAE pulled off a major coup when it secured the rights to host the COP28 climate conference in Dubai later this year.
“It reflects the new ambitions of these Gulf states, which were traditionally passive actors in international relations,” said Jean-Loup Samaan from the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.
“In the last decade they have gradually moved into the Persian Gulf, into the Indian Ocean and the Indo-Pacific. They use what they have — financial assets,” he said.
“The UAE is more advanced than the Saudis. They tend to go into these countries, establish strong diplomatic relations and then come with investments in local infrastructure,” he added.
Samaan compared the strategy to a pared-back version of China’s Belt and Road Initiative — spending money in developing countries to grow their global reach.
“It’s like a smaller, Gulf version of the Belt and Road,” he said.
Samaan said profit was far from the most important consideration when dishing out these investments.
“They want to secure diplomatic partners that align with their interests later on,” he said.
Although they have a small collective population and limited economic clout, the Pacific islands can be immensely valuable diplomatic partners. The Pacific bloc represents 12 of 55 votes in the UN’s Asia-Pacific region, which also includes Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Pacific affairs expert Stewart Firth said “influence comes at a cheap price” in the small, developing economies that make up the Pacific.
“Small amounts of assistance have large effects,” said Firth, a fellow at Australian National University.
Author and Middle East analyst Matthew Hedges said such relationships also helped the Gulf states burnish their climate credentials, which have been historically weak because of their role as major fossil-fuel producers.
“It’s about emboldening their reputation and trying to align with what’s happening internationally,” said Hedges, who in 2018 was jailed in the UAE on spying charges before being pardoned and released.
“They are deliberate and smart about how they communicate what they do. It’s pragmatic, and it’s for the long term,” he said.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
RSS