Saudi Arabia wants to bring several states lining the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden into a bloc to improve trade and maritime navigation, according to state-run media.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz met at his Riyadh palace with foreign ministry officials from Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan “to look into establishing an entity for Arab and African states on the Red Sea coast,” Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.
They discussed ways to promote commerce and investment, as well as to protect shipping, Al Ekhbariya said.
Gulf states have been taking a more active role in the Horn of Africa, which got a special mention in the communique issued at the end of Sunday’s Gulf Cooperation Council summit.
Saudi Arabia, for example, brokered a peace deal in September between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Eritrea is located near the near Bab el-Mandeb, a shipping choke-point on the Red Sea used by oil tankers and other cargo vessels en route to Europe and the US through the Suez Canal.
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