43 Nations Convene in Riyadh to Draft Saudi-Led Red Sea Maritime Defense Coalition Charter

Like the 1987–88 U.S.-led Operation Earnest Will that convoyed Gulf tankers during the Iran–Iraq war, or the 2009 creation of CTF-151 against Somali piracy, Riyadh’s proposal answers a spike in asymmetric threats at a global choke-point. It also signals a longer trend: regional middle powers trying to supplant or supplement declining U.S./Western naval primacy with indigenous security architectures, mirroring ASEAN’s 2018 push for the Malacca Strait Patrols. Whether the charter matures beyond paperwork will hinge on rules of engagement, resource commitments, and the ability of historically fractious states (some still neutral on Yemen) to share intelligence and command structures—problems that sank the Arab League’s 2015 “Joint Arab Force.” If it does solidify, the move could mark a strategic pivot in which Red Sea security, for the first time since Britain’s Aden Protectorate era ended in 1967, is anchored in a Gulf state’s multilateral apparatus rather than an extra-regional hegemon. Over a century scale, whoever reliably secures this corridor—linking 12 % of world trade—shapes the energy and supply-chain map; Riyadh is wagering that an institutionalized coalition will lodge that influence in its own hands rather than ceding it to shifting great-power fleets.