Gleanings of Arabic Press 27-Mar-2022

The news that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and China intend to use yuan as a currency for the oil trade is not new. There can be economic and political reasons for this. The Kingdom, particularly within the framework of OPEC+, can move forward in diversifying its revenue from its oil sales in global markets,…

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The news that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and China intend to use yuan as a currency for the oil trade is not new. There can be economic and political reasons for this. The Kingdom, particularly within the framework of OPEC+, can move forward in diversifying its revenue from its oil sales in global markets, whenever the conditions are ripe for that. The Kingdom has the experience of the laying foundations for petro-dollars at the beginning of the seventies of the last century. It can lay another foundation in agreement with the major oil exporters and importers in the world.

Without a doubt, selling oil in dollars has given the dollar a new strength, after US President Nixon’s decision to separate the dollar from gold which subsequently led to decline in its purchasing value. But since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge.

The Chinese yuan, despite China’s reservations and its unwillingness to use its currency outside its borders on a largescale, the digital yuan, may change the equation.

The volume of Chinese trade exchange with the world has exceeded the volume of global trade of the US. Today, China is the number one trading partner of many countries in the world. The size of China’s GDP will become the largest in the world by 2030. This will create the necessary prerequisites for the transformation of the Chinese currency into a global currency.  Many members of OPEC+ have a similar position. Therefore, Petro-yuan will come.

[by Dr Abdullah Al-Faraj in Al-Riyadh]

Muslim Bloc in New World Order

After the end of World War II, a new world order surfaced which ended the hegemony of the axis of Germany, Italy and Japan, which was then one of the main poles in the world.  This led the two enemies, the United States of America (US) and the Soviet Union, to impose their terms and conditions on the world according to their interests in the complete absence of any competing powers.

The situation continued for more than 45 years until the collapse of the Soviet Union due to the incompatibility of the country’s external objectives with the conflicting internal situation. This made the US the sole leader of the world until the end of the first twenty years of this century.

The US, China, Russia, and perhaps India and Germany in the near future, will form the new world order. This is a major opportunity to create a new Islamic bloc to act as a mediator between the old and the emerging powers. It should neither be less nor more than a balancing bloc. It should include major Arab and Islamic countries under the concept of “non-alignment”. It should take into account the failure of the “Bandung Conference 1955” and should not fall into the same trap of the ambitions of the then rising leaders who had agenda other than those of the conference. It has brought together countries with different orientations and diverse interests.

[by  Abdullah Al-Otaibi in Al-Ittihad, UAE]

Compiled and Translated by Faizul Haque