Participants pose for a group photo during the extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Turkey, on Dec. 13, 2017. Picture by Anadolu Agency/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images. All rights reserved.With his bullet-proof limousines at hand, and an entourage of 1500 conveyed from Riyadh in six jumbo jets, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz visited Indonesia in March 2017. A pledge of a billion dollars for “various development projects” was among the mega-deals signed. The monarch’s other promise of aid, probably of higher priority, was for education centers to promote Islamic teachings consistent with Saudi preferences. At the same moment, in Pakistan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was calling attention to Turkey’s aid during a summit of Economic Cooperation Organisation, a group of Muslim-majority states (several with Turkish cultural affinities) jointly committed to building a Central Asian common market like that of the European Union.
Such events highlight concerns, voiced for many years In western chancelleries and think-tanks, about ‘rogue’ aid wielded by autocrats. Overtly developmental and humanitarian, such aid is regarded as covertly political. Where aid is supposed to adhere to technocratic ‘good practices’ such aid is patently ‘bad practice’, and poses geo-political risks. ‘Rogue’ donors include the usual suspects: China, Venezuela and Iran. But some of them lurk in the west’s own camp, notably Saudi Arabia and others in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, Turkey, where a faith-based political party has steered foreign aid for nearly 20 years, is by no means above suspicion.
The Gulf monarchies and Turkey are increasingly welcome in the western-led aid congregation
