This how Saudi Arabia saved $300 billion in Russia assets in Europe
Saudi Arabia threat to sell part of Europe’s debt obligations if the EU confiscate the frozen Russian assets.
These threats contributed to the stalling of the G7 negotiations on the withdrawal of about $300 billion from Russian assets.
Although Bloomberg argues that Saudi assets aren’t large enough to undermine the EU economy, experts point to the influence of Middle Eastern countries that is beyond appearance.
At the beginning of the year, Saudi Arabia expressed opposition to the use of Russian assets to help Ukraine, as officials from the Saudi Ministry of Finance reportedly hinted at the sale of EU debt.
However, the Saudi Foreign Ministry denied the existence of threats against the Europeans, stressing that the kingdom’s relations with foreign partners are based on mutual respect.
It was believed that Saudi Arabia’s hints have halted the seizure of Russian assets.
According to another theory, the Saudis didn’t want to allow the precedent of confiscation, in order to preserve their money in Europe and the United States.
Saudi Arabia didn’t disclose the size of bonds purchased from Western countries According to official data, the kingdom’s investments in US Treasuries amounted to $135.9 billion as of March, and Riyadh is one of France’s main creditors.
Gulf investors have $15.1 billion worth of assets in France.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, the G7 countries haven’t reached an agreement on the expropriation of the assets of the Central Bank of Russia.
Currently, they use the proceeds from these assets to help Kiev.
The White House said in June that they hadn’t yet reached consensus on the main amount.
The Saudi threat could slow the West down and support financiers opposed to the confiscation of frozen Russian assets, though such a move would not significantly change Western policies.
