00:00Yeah, I mean, there were lots of investment pledges to the United States by a number of GCC governments.
00:06And I don't know if you think those pledges came with any sort of expectations and strings attached,
00:12like not drawing this region into U.S. conflicts, but do you see those pledges perhaps being reconsidered?
00:19Well, some of them should be, and some of them have to, because oil prices, if they are able to
00:27remain at these levels,
00:29we have to reconsider what gets spent inside.
00:34Because remember, there is a defense side to all of this, a military angle to all of this.
00:39Some of the defense equipment that are being used today to defend the GCC will have to be replenished.
00:46So that money that would eventually go as a result of sovereign wealth fund investments into the U.S., let's
00:55say,
00:55will have to be, some of it, instead invested towards defense equipment.
01:00And some of it will have to be reconsidered because, as we've seen, the asymmetric warfare has necessitated a different
01:10type of response.
01:11You cannot be fighting drones with Patriot missiles.
01:15You cannot be using a $3,000 to $4 million missile to counter a $7,000 to $10,000 Shahid
01:23that comes into your country.
01:25So there has to be a difference in terms of the responses, but also a reallocation of priorities.
01:32And I think defense will be one of those.
01:34And I think defense will be one of those.
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