Page 433 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

430 Arabia, the Gulf and the West

front-line Arab states, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, the money going to shore up
their economies and defences in the struggle against Israel. Next in line have
been poorer Arab countries like the Sudan and the Yemen Arab Republic, and
Muslim states like Pakistan and Malaysia. Pakistan, in particular, enjoys
considerable favour in the eyes of the Gulf states. Grants and loans to black

African states have been of far smaller dimensions, and their apportionment
has been decided almost exclusively on political grounds, some of them of a
highly dubious character, as in the case of Uganda, where the execrable Idi
Amin was kept in power largely by Libyan money and Palestinian mercenaries.

OPEC’s aggregate revenues in 1975 amounted to $94,700 million, of which
more than three-quarters were received by the Arab oil states and Persia. The
amount loaned by these states to black African countries in the same year was
under $500 million, or about 0.5 per cent of the OPEC total. It was reported in
1976 that a total of $5,200 million in aid had been promised or committed by

the Middle-Eastern oil states to other Afro—Asian countries. In fact, actual
disbursements barely reached $2,000 million, 90 per cent of which went to
Arab or other Islamic countries, with the ‘front-line’ Arab states receiving the

largest portions. Saudi Arabia’s aggregate oil revenues for the years 1974,1975
and 1976 were in excess of $80,000 million. Her loans and grants to black
Africa in the same period were said to total nearly $1,000 million, or i| per cent
of her revenues. At the Afro-Arab conference in Cairo in March 1977 Saudi
Arabia undertook to provide the African states with a further $1,000 million

over an unspecified period of time. Whether the money was to be in the form of
investments, loans or outright grants was not explained. Within two months
the Saudi government had had second thoughts about honouring its pledge,
and the outcome of the whole affair is shrouded in mystery. At the same

conference Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE engaged to invest $350 million in
black Africa over a term of five years. (Over the preceding three years these
states had received an aggregate of $46,800 million in oil revenues.) Whether
the engagement is fulfilled remains to be seen.
The total indebtedness of the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America
(the ill-named ‘Third World’) at the end of 1976 was estimated by the Unite

States Treasury in September 1977 to be, at the very least, $150,000 million, t
could be as much as $30,ooo-$40,ooo million higher. The Bank for Inter­
national Settlements in Basle, which arrived at much the same figure as the

Treasury, added the rider that it had omitted from its calculations the private
external debt of the countries concerned, which, it said, might amount to as
much as $3o,ooo-$4o,ooo million. It also made the highly pertinent comme
that the governments of some economically backward countries were un$

exactly how much money they had borrowed. The cost to the countries; 0
Africa and Latin America of servicing their external debt increased*
1973 and 1976 from $13,000 million to $26,000 million per an"“”-L ,0 the
considerable portion of their total indebtedness was directly attributable