Saudi Arabia: seeking security (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

So the King has been on a tour of South-East Asia, with promises of investment and trade:

Taking in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Japan, China and the Maldives, the king spent March leading a concerted effort to strengthen Saudi Arabia’s commercial links with Asia’s fast-growing economies.

The author concludes there can be a downside:

Investment with the heft the Saudis offer is too tempting to pass up, but King Salman’s visit will only help export his country’s hardline doctrine to places where that could do without it. Both Malaysia and Indonesia urgently need to ease tensions between restive religious communities, but Saudi Arabia aims to open more Islamic schools across South-East Asia, increasing not only literacy in the Arabic language but also Saudi religious teaching and influence. That could be a heavy price tag indeed.

Link:https://theconversation.com/a-rattled-saudi-arabia-pivots-for-support-to-south-east-asia-74856?