The superlative welcome accorded to Chinese President Xi Jinping at Riyadh was witnessed world over. In contrast, a ‘comparatively’ modest welcome was given to US President Joe Biden when he visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in July this year. But then Biden, during his election speeches, had been baying for the blood of Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS), Crown Prince of KSA for the killing of Adnan Kashoggi – a US court has dismissed a civil suit for this in December 2022. Besides, Saudis knew Biden’s visit was to seek more oil, a mission his two emissaries (British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken) had earlier failed in.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdullaziz Al Saud and Xi signed a bilateral ‘Comprehensive strategic partnership agreement’. Xi held talks with MBS and Chinese and Saudi companies and signed 34 agreements valued at around US$30 billion for investments to be made in information technology, cloud services, transportation, construction, and some other industries. Significantly, these included a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China’s Huawei Technologies for cloud computing and building high-tech complexes in Saudi cities.
Before attending the first-ever China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in Riyadh, Xi said, China would work to make those summits milestone events in the history of China-Arab relations, and that Beijing sees Riyadh as an important force in the multi-polar world. Xi authored an op-ed, published in Saudi media, in which he wrote that he was on a pioneering trip to open a new era of China’s relations with the Arab world, the Arab countries of the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia, adding that China and Arab countries would continue to hold high the banner of “non-interference in internal affairs”. According to CCTV, MBS responded by saying that Saudi Arabia opposed any “interference in China’s internal affairs in the name of human rights”.
During his visit to Beijing in February 2019, MBS had not made any comments on China’s treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. His visit to China was highlighted by a US$10 billion petrochemical deal. Since March 2019, KSA has been supplying 1.7 million barrels per day to China. KSA is China’s largest oil supplier. Chinese refiners including Sinopec, CNPC, CNOOC, Sinochem, and Norinco as well as private refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp have annual supply deals with Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company.
China is KSA’s largest trading partner. Bilateral trade between the two counties in 2021 was US$87.3 billion with the trade balance in KSA’s favour; Chinese imports from KSA were US$57 billion compared to IS$30.3 billion Chinese exports to KSA. In early 2022, KSA’s Aramco decided to build a US$10 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in northeast China. Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has said that KSA, with its strategic location among the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, will host a regional center for Chinese factories.
Attending the summits of the six-member GCC and the China-Arab Leaders Summit, Xi said, “China will continue to firmly support the GCC countries in maintaining their own security… and build a collective security framework for the Gulf… China will continue to import large quantities of crude oil from GCC countries on an ongoing basis.” He vowed to expand other areas of energy cooperation including liquefied natural gas imports. MBA addressed both summits and promised “continuing Arab-Chinese cooperation to serve our common goals and aspirations of our peoples”.
It may be recalled that during Xi Jinping’s visit to Tehran in March 2021, China and Iran signed the ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’ with a 25-year roadmap, which was in the making since Xi’s earlier visit to Iran in 2016, when he also agreed to hike China-Iran bilateral trade to US$600 billion over the next decade. China is to invest some US$400 billion in Iran in exchange for oil as part of the deal, in addition to stepping up military cooperation with joint training, research and intelligence sharing.
The ‘Iran Nuclear Deal’ or JCPOA has reached a dead end and currently the US is preparing to impose additional sanctions on Iran for supplying drones to Russia fearing Iran will also supply missiles. Interestingly, KSA’s Advanced Communications and Electronics Systems Co (ACES) had signed a deal with China Electronics Technology Group in March this year to manufacture drones in KSA.
With reference to Xi’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Gordon Johndroe, White House Secretary National Security Council spokesperson, said, “We are mindful of the influence that China is trying to grow around the world. The Middle East is certainly one of those regions where they want to deepen their level of influence. We believe that many of the things they’re trying to pursue and the manner in which they’re trying to pursue it are not conducive to preserving the international rules-based order.” After the China-Arab Summit in Riyadh during Xi’s visit, Faisal bin Farhan Al-Furhan Al-Saud, Minister for Foreign Affairs of KSA, said that KSA wants to cooperate with both the US and China and that while competition was good, polarization was not. He emphasized that the economy is expanding rapidly and the kingdom needs all partners.
The US fails to see how its actions are enabling rapid expansion of the Chinese influence including in the Gulf and the Middle East. The cliché of “International Rules-Based Order” is crafted to only serve American interests. It is the US that drove Iran into China’s arms with massive sanctions and its aim to keep Saudi Arabia tethered to Washington on the plank of “closest ally” would not work either.
The US indeed has been the largest arms supplier to Saudi Arabia but then it has also earned billions of dollars through these sales. At the same time despite US air defence systems deployed in Saudi Arabia, the Houthis have been successful in attacking Aramco’s facilities with armed drones. Reports in the past talked of former US presidents and tycoons having invested in oil wells in Saudi Arabia. Trade-wise, the US is KSA’s second largest trading partner, and KSA is one of America’s largest trading partners in the Middle East.
The Middle East has been witnessing how the US has been waging war and supporting terrorism in the region in order to keep it de-stabilized to serve American national interests, make money and control the oil supplies. America’s invasion of Iraq on deliberate lies that Iraq was developing nukes is one glaring example among many. Present preparations of Turkey (NATO member) for launching an offensive into Syria obviously has American approval though Washington would deny it – similar to denying it has prompted or supports Ukrainian strikes “inside” Russia.
In the above backdrop, retribution would be in the minds of the Middle East. Besides, the US wants to impose its will on global energy supplies by capping Russian oil at US$60 per barrel. That is perhaps one reason why Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ have cut oil production by two million dollars per day. Now Britain has ordered digging a ‘third’ coal mine and according to media, Poland has been forced to use firewood for cooking while Europe is burning coal to keep warm during winter – so much for COP27 and the pledges to save the environment!
Naturally, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf nations don’t want to depend mainly on oil exports even though the demand for petrochemicals is not going to fizzle out in the immediate future. Hence, high-tech manufacturing is the buzzword which incidentally the US also aims by forcing European industries to shift to America with its green subsidies and taxes, and the so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’.
There has been speculation about possible adverse affect of the China-Saudi Arabia-Pakistan relationship. However, such fears are unfounded. India-Saudi Arabia relations are in good stead and with the focus of MBS on high-tech manufacturing, India is a big market. Besides, there is tremendous scope for cooperation in joint manufacturing and sharing entry level technology to kick start a requisite eco system between the two nations.
Finally, Elon Musk says that the Chinese economy will be doing extremely well in the coming decade. China will overtake the US and the US military will be reduced to second position. So, if the US wants to control the global economy, has it studied its feasibility and what it should be doing rather than haphazard actions and sanctions and going down, taking Europe with it?
Please wait...
