According to Abbey, the Persian Gulf remains a critical part of the kingdom, but it is making a strategic shift westward to the Red Sea in an effort to broaden its horizons. He explains that the reasons for the shift are many, including high-profile tourism, residential and industrial projects, plus energy, “a useful prism for examining Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea strategy.”
What shift? When did the Saudis ever invest in large projects in the east aside from the oil fields and the bridge to Bahrain? The king Abdullah economic city is in the west which was a similar project to neom.
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In a new essay for *The Caravan Notebook*, a publication of Hoover’s Middle East and the Islamic World Working Group, former National Security Council official Tristan Abbey [examines](https://hoover.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=f6519fce1d&e=922d029bee) the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 development program’s focus on the Red Sea region.
According to Abbey, the Persian Gulf remains a critical part of the kingdom, but it is making a strategic shift westward to the Red Sea in an effort to broaden its horizons. He explains that the reasons for the shift are many, including high-profile tourism, residential and industrial projects, plus energy, “a useful prism for examining Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea strategy.”
Read more [here](https://hoover.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808&id=b301e0fb6c&e=922d029bee).
What shift? When did the Saudis ever invest in large projects in the east aside from the oil fields and the bridge to Bahrain? The king Abdullah economic city is in the west which was a similar project to neom.