The timing could not have been worse for Rishi Sunak. Just days after it was confirmed by Downing Street that the Prime Minister would host Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in the autumn, a human rights organisation published an extensive report accusing Saudi Arabia of the ‘mass killing’ of migrants at its border with Yemen.

The 73-page report was released by Human Rights Watch (HRW), and its contents have been relayed by several media outlets, including the BBC and the Guardian. It is a harrowing read.

Brics countries are no longer prepared to tolerate the hypocrisy of Washington, London and Paris

HRW allege that Saudi border guards killed ‘hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers’ as they attempted to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023. ‘If committed as part of a Saudi government policy to murder migrants,’ continued the report, ‘these killings… would be a crime against humanity.’

The report was compiled after interviewing 42 people, including 38 Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers, and scrutinising hundreds of videos and photographs. Members of the Independent Forensic Expert Group of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims analysed verified videos and photographs, and their conclusions corroborated the testimony of Ethiopian eyewitness accounts.

According to the HRW, Saudi border guards shot dead men, women and children, and in some cases, they ‘asked migrants what limb to shoot, and then shot them at close range’.

‘Saudi officials are killing hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in this remote border area out of view of the rest of the world,’ said Nadia Hardman, of HRW. ‘Spending billions buying up professional golf, football clubs, and major entertainment events to improve the Saudi image should not deflect attention from these horrendous crimes.’

There has been no official Saudi visit to Britain since the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident journalist, at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul in 2018. US Intelligence believe that Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi secret agents on the orders of Prince Mohammed.

But the UK is keen to follow the example of Emmanuel Macron, who has led the way among western countries in welcoming the Crown Prince back into the fold. In July 2022, Mohammed bin Salman was received at the Elysee by Macron, 48 hours after the French president had lectured African leaders about why they should steer clear of an ‘authoritarian regime’ like Putin’s Russia.

The Guardian reports that Sunak told the Crown Prince that he ‘looked forward to personally deepening the longstanding ties between the UK and Saudi Arabia’. Britain is hoping to sign a free trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is a prominent member. In addition, Downing Street wants to build on the two countries’ ‘trade and investment relationship, including by collaborating in new cutting-edge industries’.

Despite the findings of US Intelligence in 2021, which stated that ‘Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’, western leaders swiftly concluded that pragmatism would have to take precedence over principles.

US president Joe Biden – who on the campaign trail in 2019 vowed to turn Saudi Arabia into a ‘pariah’ state – ‘fist-bumped’ MBS in 2022 when the pair met in the Middle East. Biden later laughed off criticism off his gesture.

Macron was similarly insouciant about renewing acquaintances with the Saudis. Like Biden, the French president understands the realities of realpolitik. So, too, it seems, does Rishi Sunak.

But this contributes to the ongoing erosion of western prestige in the eyes of the developing world. Countries in Africa, Asia and South America are no longer prepared to tolerate the hypocrisy and sanctimony of Washington, London and Paris, when other suitors have appeared on the scene.

That is why the 15th Brics summit, which opened on Tuesday in Johannesburg, is of particular significance. The five ‘Brics’ countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – constitute 41 per cent of the world’s population and account for 16 per cent of its trade. They believe that the time has come for a new world order, and a growing number of other nations agree. Twenty-two countries have applied to join the group, among them Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Nigeria, Iran and Bangladesh. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa supports its expansion because it would lead to ‘a more balanced global order’ in an ‘increasingly complex and fractured’ world.

China and Russia have understood the potential of the divided 21st century far quicker than the West, which is worn out spiritually, intellectually, and also physically, with birth rates in Europe now at dangerously low levels. The only things that seem to exercise the West these days are net zero and gender debates, neither of which is likely to get much air time at the Brics summit.

America and Europe have lost their principles and they’re now in the process of losing their power.