Saudi Arabia is in talks to join the China-Russia led BRICS bank

By joining the key alternative global financial bank, Saudi is reviving a national goal from last century.

Saudi Arabia is in talks to join the China-Russia led BRICS bank. If this goes through, Saudi will be the third arab country to join. Not only that, effectively Arab countries will then constitute a third of the number of members. If you exclude the founding members, Arab countries will be two thirds of the members.

The move is remarkable given the history. In the 70s and 80s, Saudi wanted to create a global development bank to invest its excesses of oil revenues. The bank never materialised and instead Saudi opted to use US-led global financial banks and the dollar.

By joining the key alternative global financial bank, which is set to launch a parallel global financial system, Saudi is reviving a national goal from last century.

Can Saudi, which was a pillar of the reign of dollar, be an early member of the institution that will seek its demise? Time will tell.