SUSRIS - Ambassador C. David Welch, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs

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The Harry S. Truman Building, Washington, DC, home of the Department of State. (Photo: www.State.gov)

A New Era in US-Saudi Relations:
The View from Foggy Bottom
Patrick W. Ryan

The Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. drew its name from its role as a swampy riverfront port on the Potomac that suffered from frequent morning mists. When the U.S. Government relocated from Philadelphia to Washington, DC in 1800 the ship that transported the records of the new government's employees -- all 130 of them -- docked in Foggy Bottom. The area became known as the site of light industry in Washington, including breweries, gas works and a glass factory. Blocks of row houses were constructed to house the immigrant workers drawn to jobs there. Today Foggy Bottom is home to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the row houses are part of an historic neighborhood, and the Washington neighborhood hosts an institution that has unofficially taken the name Foggy Bottom -- the U.S. State Department. Oh, and the U.S. Government now numbers about 1.8 million employees.

Last week SUSRIS visited Foggy Bottom. Assistant Secretary of State C. David Welch, head of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, sat down to talk about the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia and the issues the two countries are working on together. He described the relations as "very good" and noted, " There are important areas of very positive cooperation between us and the kingdom." He continued, " Like in any mature relationship, there are also areas where we may have from time to time our disagreements, but our dialogue with the kingdom is such that we are able to address those candidly and try to work solutions where needed."

Welch's portfolio includes directing US foreign and diplomatic affairs in a region that stretches from Morocco across North Africa to the nations of the Arabian Peninsula, including Saudi Arabia. That's where he served as Deputy Chief of Mission from 1992 through 1995 with duties as Charge d�Affaires during the absence of the Ambassador for two years. From that perspective he offered his views on the challenges facing the relationship, some of which are being addressed by a Strategic Dialogue "instrument" created after last year's meeting between President Bush and King Abdullah. Welch also offered high marks for the efforts at public diplomacy by both Ambassador James Oberwetter in Riyadh and Ambassador Turki al-Faisal in Washington to connect with the people of Saudi Arabia and America respectively, "The important thing is to get a dialogue going in these different places. After the trauma of 9-11 it�s hugely important for this to be done on a sustained, systematic basis by representatives of both governments."

In our SUSRIS interview Assistant Secretary Welch shared the view that the relationship between America and the Kingdom was about more than the often quoted energy for security and commercial ties slogan. "This is a relationship that is hugely important to both sides and it goes beyond the issues that are traditionally in the minds of Americans." Welch pointed to Saudi Arabia's role as host to the holiest sites in the Islam and its position as a "beacon" to Muslims around the world. The value of strong ties extended to the fact, as he noted, "that the Middle East, despite the over two and a half decades of joint effort between Saudi Arabia and the United States, remains a troubled and stressful place that, requires and demands, for our mutual national interests, that we both take this very, very seriously."

Assistant Secretary Welch was optimistic about the new era in the bilateral relationship calling the Crawford summit a turning point, "President Bush intended it that way. He offered extraordinary hospitality of his ranch to King Abdullah in order to mark that moment." Welch showed a pragmatic optimism for the future of coordination and cooperation between the countries, "There have been some enormous stresses in the last few years and one can�t just kind of wash those away. But with a good solid effort led by our President on our side and the Secretary of State and on the Saudi side by the leadership in the government up to and including the king, I think we can make a lot of progress in the coming years."

SUSRIS is pleased to offer our interview with Assistant Secretary Welch for your consideration. It will be presented in two parts. In part one we discuss the status of the relationship and the progress of the Strategic Dialogue. In part two we cover regional issues confronting the countries including Iraq, Iran, and the Palestine-Israel conflict. You can access these items on the SUSRIS web site on Wednesday and Thursday (12:00pm ET) or find them in your email inbox if you subscribe to the free SUSRIS newsletter service.

For more: http://www.SUSRIS.org

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