Initially, no details about the content of the conversation were released. China’s head of state is due to meet King Salman.
Relations with Western partners are hazy, now Saudi Arabia is strengthening ties with China: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received the head of state of the People’s Republic on Thursday at his palace with full honors. The Gulf state’s de facto ruler and Xi Jinping talked about expanding their cooperation and more mutual investment, as reported by state news agency SPA.
An agreement on a “strategic partnership” was signed. With that, Saudi Arabia is also sending a message to the West, which Riyadh does not want to depend on.
Five months ago, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, traveled to the United Kingdom to promote an increase in oil production. Instead, OPEC countries, led by Saudi Arabia, cut production. Saudi Arabia has traditionally been a close US ally. In addition to the oil dispute, Biden has repeatedly been highly critical of human rights violations in the kingdom. US intelligence has accused Mohammed bin Salman of authorizing the 2018 assassination of anti-government journalist Khashoggis at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The summer visit failed to completely mend the broken relationship with Riyadh. However, Biden reaffirmed the United States’ claim to leadership in the region: the United States “would not leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran”.
Xi wants to usher in a “new era”.
Apparently, that’s exactly what Beijing intends to do. In a newspaper article published on the occasion of his visit to Saudi Arabia, Xi Jinping wrote that he wanted to usher in “a new era for relations between China and the Arab world”. Thanks to their mineral resources, industries and construction services, the region’s countries are “countries with enormous potential”.
Relations between Riyadh and Beijing, previously quite weak, have deepened in recent years. For Saudi Arabia, China is now an important trading partner that – unlike the West – stays out of the country’s internal affairs. Beijing, for its part, is heavily dependent on Saudi oil and pays Riyadh tens of billions of dollars a year for it.
During the visit, Xi also planned to attend the first-ever China-Arab countries summit. Egypt’s head of state, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and other high-ranking politicians from the region also traveled to the event. A meeting with King Salman was also on the agenda of the head of state of China.
The heir to the throne of Saudi Arabia wants to modernize the country and make the economy less dependent on oil. The country also plans to build a megacity on the Red Sea. The Saudi leadership also wants to attract Chinese investors to the project. During the trip, companies from both countries closed billionaire deals.
Uighur persecution is not a problem
Persecution of China’s Uighur Muslim minority, hundreds of thousands of whom human rights activists say have been sent to re-education camps, was not an issue during Xi’s visit to the Sunni kingdom. Apparently, Riyadh also wants to stay out of his partner’s internal affairs.
Despite all the harmony between the two states – Saudi Arabia still needs the US and its security guarantees in the region against the common archenemy Iran. China cannot offer an alternative here.
(APA)