ext mapped out looks at the power play in the gulf, states a delicate balancing, placing saudi arabia and the united arab emirates between the us and china that's coming up up to the break. and then you could see mckinnon. thanks to watching. i'll see you soon. the want me to, to pull in what it's in just a 100 days. my power is going to be bunch of my family. what cute. how was this age? i'm on a journey to find out about the russo the 19 there to put you on the site to see the rhonda. my name is some way to ship me here. i'm afraid it makes sleep shaming history out documentary stuffs. april 6th on dw, the

presenter swaps between russia and ukraine, a hostage deal between israel and tomas, the un climate conference. what do they have in common? an arab gulf states was at the center of austin. now we're working to create new partnerships with every want to meet the hour of gulf states, one more global influence. sometimes that means high fiving and fist pumping. so let's do a generation of one additions. they seem very impala. they really just want to be viewed as these monitoring is lomax states that despite their small size, has reach beyond their borders, boyland gas made the gulf states rich and powerful. and their long time allied. the u. s. provided security guarantees, but something is shifting. the us and china are buying for global influence. also

here in the gulf. now the leaders of saudi arabia and the u. a. e, are at a crossroads. so how are they pushing for power and the changing world? let's map it out, the nothing screams confidence more than shiny mega projects like these shown here in p. r. videos. the line, a futuristic linear city, powered by renewable energy that is designed to stretch a 170 kilometers along saudi arabia's red sea coast. or i'll duff for a near the united arab emirates capital abu dhabi touted as the world's largest single side solar plants to understand what's going on in the gulf states. we're focusing on these 2 economic power houses. saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. it's oil that made this kind of life possible

here. it's made these 2 authoritarian monarchies wealthy and it's help the goals become a hub for global trade up to 30 percent of the world's trade in oil passes through this waterway. the strait of hormones. but they, one more they're pushing for political transformation. let's do a generation of one additional fee that they have for the capacities and they've come cheese and the demands to really play an important sort and love to be like under the control of the west and come see, this is laurie. hi toyota. she's an energy policy expert and looks at how boyland gas shaped geo politics in the middle east. the politicians, she's talking about our mohammad been so mind, ford f b s the crown prince and prime minister of saudi arabia and shakes mohammad bins. i it, i'll not yon bore nbc, the president of the united arab emirates. he's the ruler of the hemorrhage,

abu dhabi both recently took control in their country. they're completely different then there may be a father's grandfathers, the creators of the states. they came from a history of control of the western countries over at these countries, instead of depending on the west, the saudis and moratti's have been courting big asian powers such as india and china. and looking more towards countries of the so called global south. this is come, you know, she's an expert on geo economics in the middle east. her focus is on the ties between the gulf states and china. we see that uh, in the past, really 1020 years of the willingness of, of the gulf states to join some of the multi lateral platforms that are non western centric. like breaks it's an economic alliance that is increasingly seen as a counterweight to more western oriented forms, including the g 7 bricks is a pretty exclusive club. the leaders of saudi arabia and the u. a. when you were

asked to join the blog last year. west leadership at the global stage is sending to a to a road. it's being decreasing the challenge by new players, especially the chinese. and so the goal says they're trying to adapt to, to this change in the growing multiple, i read to you of the international boards that this strategy is pretty new for saudi arabia and the u. a. e, for decades. they were very focused on the us as their main partner, basically ever since oil was discovered in the gulf and the 20th century. just look at do buying. this is what it looked like over 50 years ago. and this is what it looks like now. it's a similar story and saudi arabia, it's a fast oil reserves, completely transformed the whole gulf region. and the us was a key partner during that time. for decades,

the 2 sides had an unofficial agreement, oil for security, that cheap oil prices dollars fuel. the booming us economy in return, the u. s. provided security guarantees security guarantees matter when your main rival is just next door. iran, especially saudi arabia and iran, had historically both pushed to be the main regional power. the gulf states and iran adhered to 2 different branches of his long sony, and she's their rivalry is not just a, i mean it's not just like a political one. it's a diplomatic one. it's an economic one. it's a, it's a religious one. denied sunday already is an expert on persian gulf security relations. iran in to lead or muslim, she is while the saudis, in to legal or sending muslims. so it's just, it was inevitable that these 2 countries would have this competition would have this rivalry. the 2 sides are even fighting about wording. take

a look at this map. google shows 2 names for this body of water, which the gulf states are named after. it's commonly referred to as the persian gulf after persia, the historical name for iran. the arab states on the other side, wanted to be called the arabian golf instead. but it's not just a war of words. the region has been placed by conflicts and disputes, and many of them have been de facto proxy wars where ron and saudi arabia are supporting 2 opposing sides. for example, in the civil wars and yemen and syria. why do you need to know all this? well, it gives you some context for why the gulf states thought security guarantees from the us. so what did those look like in practice? the gulf states let the us set up military bases across the region, giving them a foothold in the middle east, and securing their access to oil. the goals states bought weapons and other

military hardware from the us, billions of dollars worth for decades and through various wars. the partnership has been pretty useful for both sides the but since the early 2 thousands political cracks have emerged in the relationship. one example, the arabs spring uprisings of 2011, which swept through much of north africa and the middle east. us president, brock, obama expressed support for the pro democracy demonstrators, seemingly ignoring old loyalties to leaders in the region, the saudi arabia and the u. a e weren't to me, it's then obama signed the 2015 nuclear agreement with their regional arrival. and the wrong thing seemed to look up for the golf. when donald trump took over the us presidency. but that ended up being more show than substance in 2019 the wrong

fact. rebels attack, saudi arabian oil facilities set to be shown here. trump didn't take any action. this was seen as proving the us can be fully counted on for security. to add insult to injury trump successor joe biden snob to principal habit of saudi arabia for several years. the risk that marched over the murder of this mat, jamal ketchup, g, a. saudi journalist, and fierce critic of the monarchy in 2018. he was killed in the saudi consulate in turkey, on top of that, in the mid to thousands. the us challenge the very foundation of the us goals partnership. it started fracking more and more of its own oil and gas that's has allowed us to reach almost a sort of a energy independence. and this has shifted quite a lot, the understanding that may be actually the gulf states and the me to this is not going to remain as important as it used to be for the us energy. secure in

the gulf, states are reacting to all these changes and to a global push to move away from fossil fuels. but the saudis and, and moratti's have been investing big and renewables presenting themselves as green front runners. the u. a. e. even hosted the most recent un climate conference, but neither country is actually quitting oil. in fact, they've been increasing oil and gas production and exploration. they are in loans of the countries in the world for, for whom the, the, the production of ford is the cheapest in the world. so they whole been, especially these are the ramp out to state what they say the last month spending. so that the last month, the last producers of oil in the, in the world. and they found new customers for, in china and india have replaced for us as tough buyers of gulf crude oil, their economic pivot to asia and towards the so called global south. also gets rid of another heading. human rights are

a key issues that has come up time and again and meetings with western meters. china, on the other hand, has what it calls a non interference policy on other countries, internal affairs. it basically means don't ask, don't tell when it comes to rights abuses. to involve china. it develops friendly relations with move countries made on mutual respect, unknown into sarasota by. okay. so china seems to be a pretty convenient business partner. but that still leaves the security issue, or for a member of the us military bases in the region while they're still there. but what's new as the saudis and emeralds have been trying to expand military cooperation with china to these are images from chinese state media. they show the country's biggest air show here in to high in 2022, the saudis report as we use the occasion to buy $4000000000.00 worth of chinese weapons. it's also sometimes by going towards china,

the way to keep the was interested also in individual east and, and, and this, this kind of positioning has been already working quite well. the gulf strategy is to keep both the us and china close. and it seems to be working in the us as wary of growing chinese influence in the gulf to jo biden's, fist pumping visit to saudi arabia. in 2022. we will not walk away and leave it back into the field, why? china russia were ran. we'll seek to build on this moment was active principle, american leadership. what does all this mean? the us doesn't want to completely give up ties in the gulf. and the gulf states aren't willing to risk losing us support either. despite how frustrated they are with the united states, think us remains their main security partner right now. even if they have uh, purchased a lot of advanced weapons from the, from the, from the us and from other states. they're military's remained quite under

developed and they don't have at the moment the ability to, to defend themselves. so let's recap of and when it comes to international partners, the gulf states have a 2 track approach. they're expanding ties with china and the global south, but they're keeping their long time security guarantor of the us close. they find themselves having to play this really delicate balancing act, where they don't really want to take sides. that pragmatic approach, all so extends to regional ties. the 2 countries have been trying to bury the hatchet on historical rivalries like the ron, and also with israel, their vision, creating stability from maximum economic growth. they cannot achieve that vision if they're fighting multiple front wars, or they're stuck in intentions with countries in the region and outside. so this

kind of no problem with your neighbors. the policy is one that they've been pursuing over the last couple of years. which brings us back to these images, the gulf states, as mediators and middle man. this is how they want the world to see them. maybe 18 gives them added credibility. it shows that they have these diplomatic and political credentials, both inside the region and outside the region. frankly, if you're a mediator, it looks good. but stability in the region seems to be on shaky ground. how most terrorist attacks on israel and the as rarely bombing of gaza has put the normalization of diplomatic relations with israel on hold. and those who see rebels, a militia backed by the gulf, other regional rival, iran are attacking ships in the red sea. the u. s. and the u. k. are responding with air strikes in the future to saudi arabia and the u. a eas attempt to

position themselves between the world's powers may also mean ending up at the center of the world's conflicts. the a clean energy and cutting with a 2 big challenges facing us today. luckily, we don't need to look far to find some pretty smart solutions. so welcome to equal africa. i and sandra the homes that we know of you joining do from complex, right? to uganda. thank to sandra. yes, sometimes it seems so difficult to fix all the problems facing i environments what we want to show.