Is it Saudi's century?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 3 August 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With vast financial resources and a new found desire to engage in regional and global diplomacy, Saudi Arabia has got the world's attention. But just how powerful can it become?
David Aaronovitch talks to:
Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent Quinn Slobodian, Professor of History at Wellesley College and author of Crack-Up Capitalism Simon Chadwick, Professor of sport and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in Paris Cinzia Bianco, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations Safa al-Ahmad, Saudi journalist and documentary maker
Produced by: Ben Carter, Diane Richardson and Kirsteen Knight Edited by: Richard Vadon Sound Engineer: Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown and Sophie Hill
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.4 | Never mind China. Forget India. Some people are beginning to talk about the Saudi century, |
| 0:14.8 | in which Saudi global influence follows Saudi money. This weekend, the Saudis are hosting Ukraine peace talks in Jeddah. |
| 0:23.1 | 30 countries have been invited, including the US, the UK, India and China. |
| 0:28.6 | And this, less than five years after the murder of a critical Saudi writer in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, |
| 0:35.9 | conferred semi-pariah status on the country's de facto leader |
| 0:39.6 | Mohammed bin Salman. A gigantic public investment fund involved in everything from sports to green |
| 0:46.8 | hydrogen can buy you a whole lot of absolution. And Saudi Arabia seems to be planning for the longer |
| 0:53.6 | term. So is Saudi Arabia about to be planning for the longer term. |
| 0:59.4 | So is Saudi Arabia about to become the powerhouse of the 21st century? |
| 1:02.6 | Step inside the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 1:07.5 | Let's start with a history lesson. |
| 1:12.8 | Frank Gardner is the BBC security correspondent. Frank Gardner, when was the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia established? Well, technically it was 1930s, 1932. Some would say, |
| 1:20.0 | though, that it dates from the 1900s when the Al-Saud tribe, basically fought the Al-Rashid tribe, |
| 1:29.4 | and they stormed Riyadh. |
| 1:35.8 | You could, though, say that really modern Saudi Arabia began in 1973 with the oil boom. |
| 1:40.7 | When did they discover this kingdom of Saudi Arabia that they actually had oil and the oil was a valuable resource? |
| 1:42.5 | I think it was the 1930s, and it was very slow at first. |
| 1:46.8 | The true wealth of it didn't really become apparent until quite some decades later. |
| 1:52.5 | And it then became the Saudi Arabian oil company, Saudi Aramco, which is just this absolutely |
| 1:58.7 | massive corporation. |
| 2:00.6 | 5% of it was to be sold off, and that would in turn generate billions. |
... |
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