Analysts emphasized that the UAE and Saudi Arabia were the most loyal to Putin, but Kuwait and Qatar were the most critical of the actions of the Russian leadership.

For Arab countries, the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine presented both challenges and opportunities.

This opinion was expressed by Western experts, writes Voice of America. At the same time, the challenge for the United States and European countries is to involve influential Arab states in solving global problems.

The war has accelerated the rift between East and West, forcing members of the Gulf Cooperation Council to seek a “delicate balance” as they maneuver between the many centers of influence in the modern world, said Gulf State Analytics CEO Giorgio Cafiero. He added that challenges facing the West have strengthened the role of Gulf Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia in terms of global energy, security and geopolitics.

At the same time, an expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, former British Foreign Office diplomat James Lynch, believes that Western countries have already lost their soft power, and the reputation of Europeans as defenders of international law has “fallen among their Arab partners.”

Europe’s soft power lies in its economic performance and social values, but, Lynch believes, these reserves are leveled by accusations up to and including “potential involvement” of Europeans in genocide in the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, European officials, the expert suggested, hoped to restore Europe’s previous relations with the Arab world. “But this is a miscalculation: the perception of the West is worsening,” the expert believes.

Analysts at the Washington Center for Calculating Geopolitical Risks Gulf State Analytics noted that the Russian invasion of Ukraine helped the Saudis force the United States to look at partnership differently, although at the beginning of his presidential term Joe Biden refused to communicate with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia due to rights problems person. And already in 2022, he went to Jeddah in an attempt to take the country out of the Kremlin’s influence.

Analysts emphasized that while the UAE and Saudi Arabia were the most loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kuwait and Qatar were the most critical of Russia’s violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and Oman and Bahrain “were in the middle.”

But all of these countries have tried to maintain close relations with both the Kremlin and the West over the past two years. And as analysts emphasized, not a single Gulf country has imposed sanctions against the Russian Federation.

Meanwhile, the United States recognizes “the rationality of the neutrality of the Gulf countries in this war,” says Mira al-Hussein, a sociologist from the UAE and a researcher at the Alwaleed bin Talal Center at the University of Edinburgh.

However, analysts admitted that currently the Arab-Israeli conflict is affecting the Gulf countries much more than the Russian war against Ukraine.

Ukraine and the states of the Arab world

On February 27, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky visited Saudi Arabia. During his working visit, he met with the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the country, Muhammad bin Salman al Saud.