USA - Sullivan in Arabia as an anti-China function

An important meeting was held in Riyadh last week between the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan with representatives of Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and India for the development of an infrastructure project that hopes to unite the countries of the Persian Gulf region thanks to a railway network, also connected with India through sea routes from the ports of the area.

According to Axios this news is one of the key initiatives of the White House in West Asia. This would be the response to China's influence in the region on the new Silk Road. Sullivan, who in recent days is hyper-appointed for having given a speech on the "Biden doctrine", also participated in the meetings with the aim of promoting this initiative among partners and allies. They call it "railway diplomacy", where the railways become physical links in which international relations flow. And in this the countries of the Persian Gulf, which intend to connect the whole region through a network of tracks that should create a circularity of connections, are quite receptive.

In fact, the idea appears to have "born during talks that have been held over the past 18 months in another forum called I2U2, which includes the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and India". The forum was established in late 2021 to discuss strategic infrastructure projects in the Middle East.

Sullivan explained this initiative during his speech last Thursday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy: "If you don't remember anything else from my speech, remember I2U2, because you'll hear more about it as we go along." For the adviser, the idea is to connect South Asia to West Asia to the United States "in ways that advance our economic technology and our diplomacy". The project is one of the pillars of the integration of West Asia in the Biden administration's Asian strategy, also taking advantage of the interest that those countries have in the region.

"A more integrated and interconnected West Asia, Sullivan said, empowers our allies and partners, promotes regional prosperity, and reduces resource demands on the United States in this region for the long term without sacrificing our core interests or our involvement in the region”.

Zionist regime is not part of this initiative at the moment, but it could be added in the future. The possibility of normalization between Riyadh and occupied Jerusalem has been discussed for some time, even in Washington. The process has started, in the future there could also be evolutions in the form of this kind of highly strategic infrastructure, also because they would complicate Chinese plans in the region.