With Saudi Arabia now apparently on the track to actually joining the BRICS and the New Development Bank, the Sept. 15 [Wall Street Journal](
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/a-saudi-defense-contractor-courted-russia-and-china-then-its-u-s-business-partners-fled-962527ad?page=1) suddenly wrote about (perhaps was only now told about, by its usual “people familiar") Raytheon Technologies having scrapped a multibillion-dollar partnership agreement with the Saudi Arabia firm Scopa Defense, Inc. back in May of this year. The reason, according to the Journal’s “people,” was that Scopa Defense was pursuing business (not even doing business!) with Russian and Chinese companies which are under U.S. Treasury sanctions. The canceled deal was based on a memorandum of understanding of 2022 for a factory complex producing air defense systems in and for the Saudi Kingdom. The contemplated investment was large, approximately $25 billion.
The actual reason is made clear within the article: Mohamed Alajlan, who owns Scopa Defense, is the chair of the Saudi-Chinese Business Council and heir to a Saudi family which has imported textiles from China for decades as well as investing there. The article says that a Scopa executive who had warned about sanctioning of the company, was fired by Alajlan. Either then or just now (it is not clear), an advisory board of retired U.S. military officers resigned en masse. Alajlan is also “charged” with hiring both a Chinese and a Russian business executive, the latter from a company sanctioned by the United States.
As Saudi Arabia is likely thinking or has already concluded: With friends like these … one needs other friends.
