ABSTRACT
The West has maintained friendly strategic relations with Saudi Arabia since its emergence as a modern state, and Britain and the US have helped shape Saudi Arabia's military forces for more than half a century. Saudi Arabia's close strategic relations with the West survived the crisis surrounding the 1973 Arab–Israeli conflict and the oil embargo that followed. The West and Saudi Arabia will always be "competitors" in the sense that the West will seek the lowest possible oil price and the lowest possible level of dependence on imports, while Saudi Arabia will seek to maximize its oil revenues and market share. Saudi Arabia is an important trading partner of the West, and plays a significant role in shaping world monetary policy and foreign aid activities. In 1984, Italy, France, West Germany, Britain, Holland, and the other West European states all had a favorable trade balance with Saudi Arabia.
