The secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, visits Saudi Arabia between Tuesday and Wednesday and will meet with the Minister of Defense, five days after Putin’s visit to the country.
In a statement, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) states that Jens Stoltenberg will meet with Khalid bin Salman Al Saud and other “senior officials”, without specifying.
The short note released does not reveal whether Stoltenberg will meet the Saudi prince, Mohammed bin Salman, but the visit by the NATO secretary general takes place five days after the meeting between the heir to the Saudi crown and Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
Putin met last week with Mohammed bin Salman to discuss cooperation between the two countries, mainly under the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and about “help to remove tensions in the Middle East”.
At a time when Washington’s support for Kiev is shaky and Russia may find extra breath in the military campaign against Ukraine, NATO is pivoting to efforts to isolate Moscow.
At the same time, the countries that make up NATO want to act as actors in easing tensions in the Middle East, while the war between the Islamist movement Hamas and Israel continues, after the biggest attack against the Jewish population since the Second World War, which degenerated into a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, with more than 17,000 dead and the territory devastated by incessant bombings.
The United States of America is Israel’s biggest supporter of the incursion into the Palestinian enclave and the North American position is being widely contested by the international community, including by countries that also belong to NATO, such as Spain, after the veto of a resolution by the United Arab Emirates at the United Nations Security Council for an immediate ceasefire.