The gulf between us

The Horn of Africa and the Gulf: The ebb and flow of power

By The Africa Report

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Posted on February 16, 2021 10:15

Ethiopia Eritrea Saudi Arabia © Saudi King Salman, center, receives Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, left, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on 16 September 2018. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)
Saudi King Salman, center, receives Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, left, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on 16 September 2018. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

Diplomatic, strategic and commercial activities are picking up in one of the world’s most important chokepoints: the Red Sea. At the start of 2020, the Horn and Gulf countries came together in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to launch the new Council of Arab and African Littoral States of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Representatives from Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen were in attendance. Missing from the meeting was Ethiopia.

Saudi Arabia is reasserting its power in the region as a response to the growing influence of Turkey and Iran. The US-China tariff war was also a chance for the region to come together under the banner of cooperation and multilateralism, despite the exclusion of certain key players.

READ MORE Abiy Ahmed: Toward a Peaceful Order in the Horn of Africa

There are many interests at stake for African and Gulf states in the Red Sea, but also for global players such as the United States, China, Japan, India, Turkey, France, South Africa and the European Union. Their overlapping and contradictory goals could be major obstacles to the establishment of viable mechanisms for cooperation and crisis management in the Red Sea.

READ MORE Red Sea Dynamics

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