On September 12, 1962, N.S. Khrushchev met with Saudi Arabian representative Ahmad Shukeiry in Gagra to discuss various global issues. They covered Soviet intervention in Egypt and the Middle East, European imperialism in Africa, the Algerian and Indonesian struggles against colonial powers, and US elections and labor unions. Khrushchev emphasized the USSR’s competition with the capitalist world, while Shukeiry expressed gratitude for Soviet support in Arab and anti-imperialist movements, including Palestine. They also discussed potential Soviet-Saudi diplomatic relations and Khrushchev’s possible visit to the UN General Assembly.

Khrushchev discusses the Soviet Union's new economic program and revolutionary history with Sudanese Prime Minister Ibrahim Abboud, emphasizing the USSR's achievements and its commitment to peaceful, cooperative relations with Sudan. He critiques Western imperialism and urges Sudan to allow Soviet aid flights to the Congo, arguing that supporting anti-colonial movements is a moral duty. The conversation also touches on Sudan's domestic policies, its cautious approach to socialism, and opportunities for expanded economic and technical cooperation between the two countries.

In their 1960 conversation in New York, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser discussed global political tensions, particularly US influence over the United Nations, the Congo crisis, and colonialism in Africa. Khrushchev criticized the UN Secretary-General as a tool of American imperialism and proposed a tripartite leadership structure representing socialist, imperialist, and neutral states. Nasser highlighted Western interference in African and Middle Eastern affairs, while both leaders expressed concerns about imperialist strategies and reaffirmed their commitment to supporting anti-colonial movements.

Brezhnev assures Nasser that the friendship between the Soviet Union and Egypt is a powerful factor in the fight against imperialism in the wake of a slanderous campaign waged against Egypt. 

Brezhnev congratulates Nasser on strengthening Egypt's national independence and rebuffing against imperial actions in the Middle East. Brezhnev clearly states the Soviet Union's commitment to supporting Egypt against Israeli aggression.

Brezhnev and Nasser discuss the relationship between their two governments and brainstorm ways to sustain Soviet-Egyptian cooperation. Special attention is given to combating Western imperialism and increasing Soviet military aid to Egypt.

Brezhnev states his satisfaction with the USSR's and India's shared fight against imperialism. He ensures that the USSR is committed to deterring American and Israeli interference throughout the Middle East.

On this second day of the talks, international affairs were the main topic of conversation. From the Soviet record, which like those of the first and the next discussion, was made by Fedorenko and the third secretary of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anatolii I. Filyov, it is evident that the atmosphere was fully relaxed, anti-imperialism brought the communist leaders together. Both hated America, Great Britain, France, West Germany, Japan, and their leaders. They discussed the situation in the Near East in detail and were heartened by the victory of leftist forces in Iraq. They joked a lot. And only at the end did Mao lightly touch upon his claims to Khrushchev, who at once reminded the Chinese leader of the Soviet advisors. It was obvious that this question continued to bother him, and Khrushchev exacerbated his grievance.

Shimon Stein is a former Israeli diplomat. He served as a member of the Israeli delegation to ACRS. 

The author of the Arabic-language book from which this excerpt has been translated, Ahmed Sa‘id (1925-2018), was from 1953 until the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War the inaugural director and main announcer of the Cairo-based Arab nationalist Sawt al-‘Arab. This radio was a crucial public relations instrument for the post-revolutionary Egyptian government and the by far most popular station in the Arab world in the 1950s-60s. Consequently, Sa‘id was a household name to Arabs.

While most Arabic books on non-Arab decolonization movements and, related, anti-imperialist movements in the 1950s and 1960s concerned African states, there was much interest in other countries, too. One was Cuba, where a revolution that had started in 1953 succeeded on January 1, 1959. For realpolitik reasons Cuba early on became a Soviet ally, and eventually in the 1960s turned communist, though it continued to pursue a rather fiercely independent foreign policy including armed engagements in Africa, as Piero Gleijeses’ Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 (2003) showed. Egypt, on the other hand, repressed its domestic communists, though entertaining considerable ties with the USSR and defining itself as a socialist state. Thus, when Sa‘id accepted a Cuban invitation to attend the revolution’s second anniversary celebration, it was not leftism that attracted him most. Rather, he in this book depicted Cubans as fellow fighters in a continuous revolution against US-led imperialism, a political battle superseding any cultural or linguistic differences.