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China and Saudi Arabia have agreed to hold regular summits between their leaders, cementing ties between the world’s second-largest economy and its biggest oil supplier.
At a meeting in Riyadh on Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman agreed to hold summits every two years as they upgraded the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The two countries also signed several energy and investment pacts.
Photo: AP
Leaders have announced plans to synchronize Xi’s signature Belt and Road infrastructure program with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which aims to wean the economy off its reliance on oil.
Xi and Prince Mohammed “discussed aspects of partnership and joint coordination efforts,” the state-run Saudi Press Agency said. Xinhua said Xi agreed to help boost Chinese tourism in the Middle Eastern nation and expand cultural ties.
On Friday, Xi will meet with a wider circle of Arab leaders.
The moves show a willingness for the two countries to strengthen relations as both see ties with the US diminish.
In October, US President Joe Biden accused Riyadh of colluding with Russia to cut oil production, promising unspecified “consequences”.
Total US-Saudi trade declined from about $76 billion in 2012 to $29 billion last year.
The two countries should strengthen cooperation in the UN, the G20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Xi wrote in an editorial in the Saudi newspaper Al Riyadh.
China’s engagement in the region illustrates that an “alternative world order” can exist, said Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
“It suits both Riyadh and Beijing to point out that they have other options for the US or important partnerships on the world stage that do not include the West,” he said.
Neither Saudi nor Chinese state news outlets gave many details about the deals, other than to say the others involved sectors such as information technology, cloud services, the medical industry and construction.
These include an agreement with China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) for cloud computing and high-speed internet complexes in Saudi Arabia. The US Federal Communications Commission last month decided to exclude Huawei from the US market for telecommunications equipment.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Investment and Shandong Innovation Group Co (山東創新集團) also signed an agreement to build an aluminum plant, and the Saudi government said it had agreed to set up a hydrogen cracking project.
In Riyadh, Xi also met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Arab states of the Persian Gulf are trying to recalibrate their foreign policy as the US turns its attention to other parts of the world.
Chinese construction expertise could be tapped for Prince Mohammed’s planned $500 billion futuristic Red Sea city of Neom. His firms have operated elsewhere in Arab countries, particularly in the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, has also provided political cover to China over its harsh policies toward Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. More than a million were sent to detention centers, forced to denounce Islam and swear allegiance to Xi and the party.
Additional reporting by AP
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