As Nato Expands China And Russia Seek To Unseat Iran And Saudi Arabia

In the East, however, security- and economic-focused blocs led by Beijing and Moscow are trying to recruit new members of their own, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, two major rivals in the Middle East whose interest in supporting the cooperation on this new front could have a significant impact on the global geopolitical balance. The two bodies in question are the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS. The former was established in 2001 as a six-member political, economic and military coalition including China, Russia and the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan before enlisting South Asian foes India and Pakistan in 2017, while the latter is a group emerging economic powers originally consisting of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) at its inception in 2006, and including South Africa in 2010. “The BRICS and the SCO share an important ideological quality: they both focus on multipolarity, and their summits have occasionally been held alongside each other,” Matthew Neapole, international affairs expert and fellow at Macdonald-Laurier. Institute in Canada, he told Newsweek. “Both are trying to act as force multipliers for this push for multipolarity, to help along with alternatives [i.e, in currency or banking]”It could, in theory, facilitate economic ties and tap into gaps that US institutions don’t cover because of sanctions like those imposed on Russia.” Security- and economic-focused blocs led by Beijing and Moscow are trying to take on new members, including Iran and Saudi Arabia. In this composite photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin (top left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (top right) meet on February 4, 2022, ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (bottom left) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are also pictured. Alexei Druzhinin/Meghdad Madadi/Alexander Zemlianichenko/SPUTNIK/ATP IMAGES/AFP/Getty Images Iran, already an SCO observer, began its formal accession process amid the leaders’ last summit in September. On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry announced that the Islamic Republic would also seek to join BRICS. Across the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia has also reportedly considered applying to join BRICS, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov revealed during his visit to the kingdom in late May. The announcement followed Saudi Arabia joining Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Senegal, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates at China’s invitation for a ‘BRICS+’ discussion, after which the representative Chinese Foreign Ministry Wang Wenbin announced that the members “reached a consensus on the BRICS Expansion Process.” Of these candidates, Argentina has already applied for membership, potentially advancing the group’s status to a major player in international economic relations. And with the SCO also seeking to grow, Beijing and Moscow may be ready to push their bid to sway the international balance of influence toward a wider group of countries that do not necessarily subscribe to an explicitly US-led international order. And while Neapole argued there would be “huge hurdles to overcome” in trying to turn that vision from aspirational talk into substantive action, he said a cohesive SCO-BRICS bloc could have a huge impact on reshaping the world order. “If it can be successful in positioning itself as the standard-bearer of the Global South or the G20, develop strong organizational mechanisms and integrate more thoroughly,” he said, “it could be very influential.” BRICS’ multipolar approach to international affairs has proven attractive to both Iran and Saudi Arabia. The two nations, however, have their own unique reasons for seeking membership. For Riyadh, the move would likely be less about choosing sides against the close ties it has cultivated for decades with Washington and more about the kingdom’s growing status as an independent player. “China’s invitation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to join the ‘BRICS’ confirms that the Kingdom plays an important role in building the new world and has become an important and essential player in global trade and economy,” said Mohammed al-Hamed , chairman of The Saudi Elite Group in Riyadh, told Newsweek. “Saudi Arabia’s vision 2030 is advancing at a confident and global pace across all sectors and sectors.” That vision, unveiled by Prince Mohammed bin Salman a year before he was appointed crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia in 2017, outlined a plan to diversify his country’s oil-dependent economy and present a new image of the kingdom to International community. And while Crown Prince Mohammed sought to strengthen cooperation with the US, especially as President Joe Biden prepared this month for his first visit to the monarchy he once called a “pariah” for alleged human rights abuses, the Saudi king Arabia has also expanded its ties with Russia and China in recent years. Joining the BRICS would demonstrate a commitment to Riyadh’s resolve in dealing with other major powers and mark a major victory for the effort to strengthen the economic frameworks created outside the auspices of the US and its immediate allies. “This membership, if Saudi Arabia joins it, will balance the global economic system, especially since the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter and is in the G20,” Hamed said. “If it happens, this will support any economic movement and development in global trade and economy and record remarkable progress in social and economic aspects as Saudi Arabia should have partnerships with every country in the world.” This approach stands in stark contrast to that of Washington, which regularly excludes countries with which it disagrees through a growing list of sanctions. The US’s dominant position in the global financial system has traditionally left few options for these nations, but this situation has gradually changed as frameworks such as BRICS offer possible ways to circumvent these constraints. US President Joe Biden gestures as he addresses members of the media during a press conference at the NATO summit in Madrid on June 30, 2022. Biden has sought to revive and strengthen US global leadership, especially in the face of its war of Russia in Ukraine and an increasingly powerful China. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images Among those countries that want to face US economic pressure is Iran. International sanctions against the Islamic Republic in response to its nuclear activities were lifted in 2015 after a multilateral nuclear deal was reached with the US and other major powers including China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK, but then- President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, severely affecting Tehran’s ability to deal with the international community. Biden has begun negotiating a possible return to the deal struck during his vice presidency under former President Barack Obama. However, a series of negotiations held since April last year left the US and Iran deadlocked, and another series of talks held in Qatar this week appeared to end early with no sign of significant progress. Frustration at the policy shift in Washington has led Tehran to increasingly look to its own region for strategic partnerships, which it is increasingly forging with Beijing and Moscow. “Iranian officials have concluded that the US and its Western allies will never allow the Islamic Republic of Iran to play the regional role it deserves as a middle power,” said Zakiyeh Yazdanshenas, a researcher at the Center for Middle East Strategy. Studies in Tehran, he told Newsweek. “Therefore, they decided to neutralize US efforts to isolate Iran by further closing off non-Western bodies such as the SCO and BRICS,” he added. “Furthermore, the Iranians see the future world order as an Eastern one and are trying to get closer to organizations in which Eastern powers such as Russia and China play an important role.” This does not mean that the two blocs are necessarily anti-Western in nature. Although a concerted effort has emerged to woo countries outside the traditional G7 grouping from which Russia was suspended in 2014 as the conflict over Ukraine first erupted, and other major economies such as China and India have not been invited, the SCO and the BRICS, which are not formal military alliances like NATO, saw themselves as inherently inclusive. “The SCO and BRICS have not been established as an alternative to Western organizations,” Yazdanshenas said, “and their specific function has not been defined by confrontation with the West or the existing world order.” However, he argued that growing international competition has only intensified “the balancing function of non-Western organizations” such as the SCO and BRICS. Here, too, he said Iran could serve as a major asset for both coalitions. “Joining a moderate power with an anti-Western approach like Iran in these bodies can strengthen this aspect of the SCO and BRICS,” Yazdanshenas said. “Iran has been under the most severe sanctions in the last decade, yet it has been able to significantly expand its power in the region.” And, like Saudi Arabia, Iran’s oil and gas reserves make it an important strategic partner, especially given escalating global energy frictions exacerbated by Western sanctions on Russia and intense competition between Beijing and Washington. “Iran is the only producer of energy resources in the Persian Gulf that is not an ally of the United States and will not refuse to supply energy to China if the trade war escalates…