LONDON: America, Syria, Ukraine, Gaza, China, Lebanon, Sudan — 2025 was the year that Saudi Arabian diplomacy, already a potent regional force, came of age on the world stage.

“This year’s big story when it comes to Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic stand is the transition from bringing its status as a regional power broker to the multilateral scale,” said Kelly Petillo, program manager for the Middle East and North Africa at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

She pointed to two diplomatic initiatives in particular, “whose reach and impact span way beyond the region and mark Saudi Arabia’s entry in the list of multilateral power brokers.”

At the UN General Assembly in September, the vast majority of delegates voted in favor of a resolution tabled jointly by France and Saudi Arabia. 

While condemning the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and demanding that Hamas must free all hostages, the resolution called for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the Two-State solution.”

The text was adopted by 142 votes to 10 against — including Israel and the US — and with 12 abstentions.

The other diplomatic initiative driven by the Kingdom at the General Assembly was the formation of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, at a meeting presided over by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud and attended by the representatives of 90 states. The alliance held its first meeting in Riyadh at the end of October.

The new year had barely started when Saudi Arabia’s 2025 diplomatic offensive got under way, with the gathering of ministers from 17 countries at a special conference in Riyadh on Jan. 12 to discuss how to speed aid to the new government in Syria. 

Exactly three weeks later, on Feb. 2, Syria’s new president, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, accompanied by foreign minister Asaad Al-Shaiban, made his first official trip abroad, flying to Riyadh to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

“Of course, Riyadh is not alone in mediation efforts in the region,” said Petillo. “Qatar, for instance, also plays a role. But it could be argued that Saudi Arabia is now seen as the primary regional power by international actors such as the US and by local governments such as the authority in Syria.”

February saw two more high-profile demonstrations of Saudi Arabia’s determination to assert its leadership in pursuit of both regional stabilization and global realignment. On Feb. 18, Riyadh hosted a ministerial-level meeting between Russia and the US.

Three days later leaders from Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states met in Saudi Arabia to counter a reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip mooted by US President Donald Trump. 

“Saudi diplomacy in 2025 effectively cast Riyadh as a central convener, leveraging major summits and renewed regional engagement to anchor itself in key mediation efforts,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East North Africa Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

“Its multi-aligned outreach to the US, China, Russia and Europe broadened strategic room for maneuver, even as it underscored the inherent challenges of balancing rival great-power agendas. 

“Re-engagement in Syria showcased Riyadh's influence with President Trump and sustained convening on Palestine at the UN also demonstrated Saudi influence.”

The proof of that influence has been the steady stream of world leaders travelling to Riyadh in the course of the year. 

On March 4, new Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s first official foreign visit was to Riyadh, for a meeting with the crown prince. Just six days later, as Saudi Arabia assumed the role of mediator between Russia and Ukraine, beleaguered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky flew to Jeddah to meet with the Saudi crown prince.

Underscoring Saudi Arabia’s determination to tread its own pragmatic path through the complexities of international relations, at the beginning of December Riyadh hosted the Saudi-Russian Investment Forum, on the sidelines of which the two countries signed a mutual visa-free agreement.

At times, it seemed that Saudi diplomacy, often represented in person by the crown prince, was active in almost every global arena. On Dec. 4, for example, the final communique issued at the close of the 46th GCC summit in Bahrain singled out Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his efforts to end the war in Sudan.

“Saudi Arabia has positioned itself as a diplomatic alternative to key intermediaries and regional rivals such as Qatar, particularly in the context of wars in Sudan, Gaza and even Ukraine,” said Caroline Rose, director of Military and National Security Priorities at the New Lines Institute. 

“Saudi Arabia has also sought to deepen its partnership with the US, positioning itself as a candidate America can rely upon to uphold security commitments as Washington seeks to diversify its relationships in the region beyond Israel.”

Three events in particular underscored Riyadh’s arrival as an international diplomatic heavyweight.

On Oct. 28 Chinese Vice President Han Zheng arrived in Riyadh for a five-day visit, during which he addressed the ninth Future Investment Initiative conference and held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Royal Court in Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh.

China, said the vice president in a communique, “stands ready to work with Saudi Arabia to implement the important consensus reached by their leaders, enhance high-level exchanges, expand practical cooperation in various fields, and increase people-to-people and cultural exchanges, in order to lift the China-Saudi Arabia comprehensive strategic partnership to higher levels.” 

China, he added, was also willing “to enhance coordination with Saudi Arabia on multilateral platforms such as the United Nations and the G20, advance global governance in a more just and reasonable direction, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.”

The following month, the patient diplomatic groundwork laid by Saudi Arabia aimed at seeing the post-Assad-era Syria brought back into the international fold was rewarded spectacularly when Syrian President Al-Sharaa was welcomed by President Trump at the White House on Nov. 10.

The historic meeting — the first at the White House between leaders of the two countries since 1946 — culminated with President Trump announcing that sanctions on Syria would be lifted.

Eight days later, on Nov. 18, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also visited President Trump in the White House. They had met in Riyadh in May, when Trump chose Saudi Arabia as the destination for the first international trip of his second term as president, and Saudi Arabia pledged $600 billion of investments in the US. 

In November the two men signed a series of agreements, including a historic Strategic Defense Agreement (SDA). As Vakil wrote in an analysis for Chatham House, “the Kingdom today is wealthier, more confident, and more diplomatically assertive than at any point in its modern history.”

President Trump’s visit to the Kingdom in May had shown that “he and (Crown Prince) Mohammed bin Salman share a regional vision that champions the possibility of ‘commerce over chaos’ and technological investment over ideological confrontation.”

But, she added, Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic pragmatism did not extend to normalizing relations with Israel — a big goal of the Trump administration — if that meant compromising over Gaza: “The Kingdom has stated clearly and repeatedly that it will not sign any agreement with Israel without real movement toward a two-state solution.”

Saudi Arabia, said Sir John Jenkins, former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria, “has become a much more nimble and effective player in regional diplomacy over the past five years.  The foreign minister is active, engaged and very well informed.” 

The Kingdom’s diplomats face a challenging year ahead, nevertheless. “The difficulty — as always — is deciding where to put most effort,” said Sir John.

“Gaza has been the biggest issue.  To do more than simply achieve a ceasefire — which will eventually collapse without progress on the underlying problems — we are going to need sustained US engagement and Israeli willingness to cooperate in serious negotiations towards Palestinian self-governance.

“That is a long way off, frankly.  So, the key test will be how much regional actors — above all the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — can craft imaginative policy proposals as we move forward.”