Population Size
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- West Asia has an estimated population of 460 million people (2024).
- The largest country by population in the region is Egypt with over 109 million people.
Oil Reserves
- West Asia holds approximately 48% of the world’s proven oil reserves.
- Saudi Arabia alone holds around 17% of global oil reserves, with about 266 billion barrels of proven reserves.
World’s Tallest Building
- The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE, is the tallest building in the world at 828 meters (2,717 feet) with 163 floors.
Religious Significance
- Islam, which originated in the Middle East, is practiced by approximately 94% of the region’s population.
- Over 1.9 billion Muslims globally consider Mecca in Saudi Arabia the holiest city in Islam.
- The annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia attracts over 2 million pilgrims from around the world every year.
Largest Desert
- The Rub’ al Khali (Empty Quarter) in Saudi Arabia is the largest continuous sand desert in the world, covering an area of 650,000 square kilometers (250,000 square miles).
GDP
- The combined GDP of West Asia is approximately $4.0 to $5.0 trillion (2023 estimates).
- Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the UAE are the largest economies in the region, with Saudi Arabia leading at $1.06 trillion.
- The richest country per capita in the region is Qatar, with a GDP per capita of around $60,000.
Summit that staunched bloodshed in West Asia
The Sharm el-Sheikh summit represents a watershed in Middle East diplomacy, but its legacy is profoundly ambiguous. Co-chaired by the US and Egypt, the gathering of world leaders succeeded in brokering an end to a devastating two-year war in Gaza, securing a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and prisoners, and an unprecedented international commitment to reconstruction and oversight.
The Sharm el-Sheikh Summit: A Pause on Conflicts, but No Guarantees of Lasting Peace
The Sharm el-Sheikh Summit of October 2025 exemplifies high-stakes, personality-driven diplomacy. It successfully ended a devastating two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas, securing a ceasefire and the return of hostages, providing momentous human relief. However, the summit is more a tactical achievement in crisis management than a strategic step toward peace.
Trump’s Gaza peace plan: Searching for solutions
Donald Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan has transitioned from a political concept to a tense, high-stakes negotiation marked by fragile progress and deep mistrust. Following Hamas’s conditional acceptance to release hostages and relinquish power, indirect talks in Sharm el-Sheikh—mediated by Egypt and Qatar—seek to operationalise the plan’s first phase involving ceasefire terms, prisoner exchanges, and security guarantees. Despite temporary optimism, no formal ceasefire, large-scale exchange, or public agreement has materialised, underscoring the plan’s uncertain prospects.
The World Wants the Gaza War to End Now
The unprecedented global consensus, demanding an immediate end to the protracted Gaza War, stems from a convergence of powerful factors. Driven by moral outrage over a severe humanitarian catastrophe, this global will is manifesting through Israel's deepening diplomatic isolation, marked by near-unanimous UN votes and a wave of statehood recognitions for a Palestinian State by key Western nations. The protracted Israel-Palestine conflict has fractured the traditional US-led security architecture in the Middle East, rendering old frameworks like the Abraham Accords defunct and spurring new, albeit contentious, peace initiatives. The convergence of these diplomatic, public, and strategic forces represents a fundamental shift from mere conflict management to an urgent, collective demand for the end of the Gaza War and a sustainable resolution based on a two-state solution.
Defence and offence on the West Asia chessboard
The Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement signed between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan on September 17, 2025, marks a major turning point in West Asian geopolitics, formalising a decades-long strategic alignment and creating new ripples that could alter regional security architectures and challenge India's strategic positioning. This unprecedented pact establishes a NATO-style mutual defence commitment, declaring that "any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both."
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