On Thursday, during President Xi Jinping’s visit, Saudi Arabia and China demonstrated their strengthening connections by signing a number of strategic agreements, including one with telecommunications giant Huawei, whose expanding presence in the Gulf area has generated security worries for the United States.
In a nation building new international alliances outside of the West, King Salman and Xi inked a “comprehensive strategic partnership pact.”
Members of the Saudi Royal Guard on Arabian horses and carrying Chinese and Saudi flags led Xi’s car to the king’s palace, where he subsequently attended a welcome banquet.
The de facto head of the oil company, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, greeted the Chinese leader with a friendly smile as they held discussions. “A new era” in relations with the Arab world, according to Xi.
The show stood in stark contrast to the low-key greeting given to US President Joe Biden in July, which had been overshadowed by the difficult visit due to tensions over Saudi Arabia’s oil strategy and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
The United States said on Wednesday that Xi’s trip was an example of China’s attempts to impose influence around the world and that it would not impact U.S. policy toward the Middle East. The United States is carefully observing China’s expanding sway and its ties to Riyadh are at an all-time low.
Despite U.S. anxiety with Gulf allies over a potential security risk in adopting the Chinese firm’s equipment, a pact on cloud computing and the construction of high-tech complexes in Saudi cities was agreed upon with Huawei Technologies [RIC:RIC:HWT.UL] of China.
Despite the U.S. worries, Huawei has helped create 5G networks in the majority of the Gulf states.
After the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Prince Mohammed, with whom Biden banged fists rather than shook hands in July, has reemerged on the international scene. He has been stubborn in the face of American ire over oil supplies and demands from Washington to help isolate Russia.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates claimed on Thursday that the prince and the UAE president jointly oversaw mediation efforts that resulted in the release of American basketball player Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap with Russia, further enhancing his international credentials.
Xi said he was on a “pioneering journey” to “start a new era of China’s relations with the Arab world, the Arab countries of the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia” in an opinion piece that was published in Saudi media.
China and Arab countries would “continue to hold high the banner of non-interference in internal affairs”, Xi added.
According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, the crown prince reiterated that stance when he stated that his nation rejected any “intervention in China’s internal affairs in the name of human rights.”
According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, the crown prince reiterated that stance when he stated that his nation rejected any “intervention in China’s internal affairs in the name of human rights.”
Xi said China would seek to make those summits “milestone events in the history of China-Arab ties” and that Beijing saw Riyadh as “an significant force in the multipolar world.” On Friday, Xi is scheduled to meet with other Gulf oil producers and attend a larger gathering of Arab leaders.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations, including the United Arab Emirates, have said that they will not support one global power over another and that they are diversifying their alliances to advance their own economic and security goals.
“TRUSTED PARTNER”
China, the largest energy user in the world, is a significant trading partner of Gulf states, and as the area seeks for economic diversification, bilateral connections have grown, raising concerns in the United States about Chinese engagement in critical Gulf infrastructure.
Riyadh would continue to be a “trusted and reliable” energy partner for Beijing, according to the Saudi energy minister, and the two would increase their cooperation in energy supply chains by establishing a regional hub in the kingdom for Chinese factories.
Chinese and Saudi firms also signed 34 deals for investment in green energy, information technology, cloud services, transport, construction and other sectors, state news agency SPA reported. It gave no figures, but had earlier said the two countries would seal initial agreements worth $30 billion.
The visit will lead to further growth of energy cooperation, according to Tang Tianbo, a Middle East expert at the think tank associated with the Chinese government known as the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR).
