Two military battleships from the Russian Northern Fleet docked at the port of Jeddah in western Saudi Arabia for the first time in nearly ten years, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, in an indication of the growing rapprochement between the two countries.
An official at the Russian embassy in Riyadh told AFP that “the two warships left” Jeddah on Thursday, noting that the visit “was scheduled some time ago.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated on its website, Wednesday, that “the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the naval tanker Kama docked at the port of Jeddah” on the Red Sea coast.
She explained that the purpose of this was to “supply fuel, water (…) and supplies,” noting that a “cultural program had been prepared for the crew” of the two barges.
The Russian Ministry of Defense published a video clip of the two battleships, which included a Saudi tugboat towing the Russian frigate into Saudi waters.
The two battleships left the port of Severomorsk last January to participate in two international naval exercises in the waters of the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea.
In February, the Russian ministry said the two battleships took part in trilateral naval exercises alongside the navies of China and South Africa in the Indian Ocean.
The visit comes with the strengthening of Saudi-Russian economic ties, while the cooling of Riyadh’s relationship with Washington prevails against the background of thorny issues.
After Saudi Arabia avoided condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022 and called for a political solution to the crisis, it resisted Western pressure for months to increase oil production to curb prices.
The “OPEC Plus” coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, decided to cut oil production by two million barrels per day, in a move that Washington considered “aligning itself with Russia.”
And on Sunday, Saudi Arabia and a number of major oil exporters announced a reduction in production again, starting in May, with the aim of raising prices after their recent deterioration, with a total of about “1.66 million barrels per day.”
