Japan employs many of the same U. Beijing, by contrast, has sold Riyadh weapons, such as missiles and armed drones, that Washington had refused to provide to the Saudi military before July Those sales built on Saudi-China military ties dating back to the s—when Riyadh purchased CSS-2 missiles from Beijing—along with recent joint military exercises. Both the Chinese and Saudi militaries also have long-standing ties to the Pakistani army, which has deployed its forces to the kingdom and uses U.
Even if China cannot project the same type of military power that Washington can in the Gulf today, it is assumed among many Saudis that it will be able to do so in the future. At the same time, deeper military ties with either Beijing or Tokyo risk dragging Riyadh into the complicated politics of Asia and into a set of partnerships where Tehran also has some sway.
In June , U. Congress to curb military sales to Riyadh, calls that would grow louder should Riyadh ally with Beijing. A key but understudied part of the burgeoning Saudi-Asia relationship is the deep cultural ties that bind the Kingdom to Asia in the twenty-first century. The flow of people from Asia to Saudi Arabia is a key driver of this cultural exchange with countless Asian pilgrims and migrant workers flocking to Saudi Arabia every year.
Pakistan, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and Bangladesh send the largest number of pilgrims from Asia, with Indonesia alone contributing more than , pilgrims a year to the Hajj and , a month for Umrah. These plans recognized the pent-up demand among tourists to see the kingdom, an exotic locale, and the desire of 1. They underwent vigorous screening before they were permitted to join the Hajj , quarantined before and after the pilgrimage, and adhered to a plethora of safety protocols while in Mecca and Medina.
As Eman Alhussein has noted, few parts of the country were more impacted by the virus than Al-Nakkasah—a densely populated and poor area of , Burmese and Bangladeshis in the center of Mecca , a short distance from the Kaaba.
Neighborhoods like Al-Nakkasah house the enormous Asian community in the kingdom. Many of these Asian groups settled in Saudi Arabia after performing Hajj or Umrah, while others came to study or work, especially during and after the oil boom in the s. A year earlier, in a country of almost 34 million people , there were at least 1. Those remittances, however, are likely to be significantly altered, due to the spread of Covid In spring , Riyadh imposed a strict lockdown throughout the kingdom and sealed international borders to control the virus.
While Riyadh extended the expired visas of foreigners and provided medical care free of charge to them, many workers went unpaid for extended periods, leaving them without a way to provide for themselves. For weeks, the social media accounts of Asian embassies in Riyadh were filled with emergency appeals for food and medicine. This type of rhetoric has had an effect. The government, as part of its national strategy to address the losses businesses suffered because of the lockdown, pledged to help firms cover the salaries of Saudi workers but not foreigners.
Once the visa is approved, workers are expected to make arrangements to leave. By July , Jadwa Investment estimated that , expatriate workers had already left the Saudi labor market. When international commercial air travel resumes, more will leave, with at least 1.
Some Bangladeshis and Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors have already started to send funds home in preparation for a permanent return to their home countries. Ultimately, Riyadh hopes that these positions will help reduce unemployment among Saudi nationals. That decline, which is driven by an exodus of workers to Asia, could negatively impact government finances by decreasing the amount of money that Riyadh will collect from both the value added tax VAT and the fees it imposes on foreign workers and their employers.
The absence of workers and visitors from Asia has also decimated the Saudi culture, entertainment, and tourism sectors. Notably, Riyadh had hoped that these three sectors, all of which were part of Vision , would help Saudi Arabia transition away from an economy dominated by energy.
The absence of those salaries will have a significant impact on India, the Philippines , and other middle- and low-income Asian nations that depend on remittances to balance their current accounts. As bonds linking thousands of workers from Asia to Saudi Arabia begin to recede, other sociocultural ties between Riyadh and the rest of Asia have endured or even grown. In particular, the company has educated its Chinese staff about Arab culture and Islam while also devising work plans to address the cultural and religious needs of its local employees.
Huawei also built a prayer hall for Muslims in the lobby of its corporate headquarters—a decision that greatly impressed a visiting delegation of Saudi business officials in Over the past four decades, they have funded Quranic reading competitions and other cultural events, madrassas, mosques, and new private and state universities in Asia.
These institutions have had a significant impact on Islamic practices and norms in countries as different as Pakistan and Indonesia.
Although that vision has at times faced steep cultural and institutional resistance, it has nonetheless shaped the contemporary politics and society throughout the vast archipelago. An important figure who has upheld this vision is Rizieq Shihab , a powerful sheikh, who leads the Islamic Defenders Front, an influential Indonesian Islamist organization.
In , he led an unprecedented demonstration of half a million people in central Jakarta demanding that Basuki Tjahaja Purnama widely known as Ahok , who was governor of Jakarta and an ally of President Widodo, be tried for blasphemy. A year later, after Ahok had lost his bid for reelection, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy. The tweet, which was quickly deleted, enraged the NU, whose members called for his immediate removal as ambassador.
Many Indonesians also saw the tweet as unacceptable meddling in their domestic politics and a reminder of the potential power that Riyadh could wield in the archipelago nation—thanks to its control over how many Indonesians go on Hajj, the hundreds of thousands of Indonesians who work in the kingdom, and Saudi linkages to educational institutions and to leading figures such as Shihab.
Nor had it gone unnoticed that the only Indonesian public figure whom the Ambassador followed on Twitter was Prabowo Subianto, then a prominent political rival of President Widodo. Doing so results in a population density value of forty-one people per square mile. Where is Saudi Arabia in the World? World View: Continent View:. Official Name. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Common Name. Saudi Arabia. Bordering Countries.
Calling Code. Swords symbolize strength, stamina and sacrifice while the palm tree symbolizes vitality, growth and prosperity. Currency of the Kingdom: The currency of Kingdom is the Saudi Riyal which is gold-plated, convertible and divided into Halalas. It has the following denominations; paper notes : one Riyal, five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred Riyals, two-hundred and five-hundred Riyals; Coins : one Riyal, fifty, twenty five, ten and five Halalas.
The exchange rate is 3. S dollar. Measures and Weights: The metric system is generally used in Saudi Arabia for measures and the Kilogram for weights.
The Hijri year has days divided into 12 lunar months. Official Holidays: The official holidays in the Kingdom are as follows :. Eid Al Fatr : From 25th of Ramadan to 5th of Shawal for a duration of 10 days extending up to two weeks if it starts before weekend holiday. All government institutions and departments are closed during these holidays. Symbols Used in this Book: - Not existent. Note: In some tables, totals were rounded independently.
Thus sums of the individual figures may differ slightly from the totals shown. Skip to main content.
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