Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Ignoring the plight of over a million Uighur Muslims in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, Beijing’s human prolonged rights violations there, and China turning defacing mosques, the Arabs enthusiastically embraced President Jinping as Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) led the Arab and Gulf leaders into two Summits with him.
The Arab countries will seek to improve cooperation with China and look forward to a new phase of the partnership, the Saudi Crown said on Friday at the Arab-China summit held in Riyadh.
“The Kingdom is working on enhancing cooperation (with China) to serve international stability,” he said, in front of Arab leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was on a three-day official visit to the Kingdom.
President Xi also said the Summit would “lead to a brighter future,” adding that China sought “comprehensive cooperation” with Arab states to serve Chinese-Arab mutual interests, the media reported.
After signing many agreements on Thursday with the Saudis, Xi met Gulf leaders on the third and final day of his trip, only his third journey outside China since the coronavirus pandemic began in January 2020.
State television showed leaders from the six-country, resource-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) attending the event.
“Gulf countries and China can achieve economic and industrial integration,” Xi told Gulf leaders and noted that the GCC overcame global challenges.
He also committed to China’s unwavering support for the Gulf countries’ security and assured that Beijing would continue to import oil in large quantities from the region.
Earlier, MBS noted the Summit reflected the common desire to strengthen Gulf-Chinese cooperation, and that the GCC “discussed the establishment of a Gulf-Chinese Free Trade Zone.
The Gulf countries are bolstering ties with China as part of a strategy to diversify their fossil fuel-reliant economies.
A breakthrough in the trade pact could help Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s biggest economy, diversify its economy in line with the Vision 2030 reform agenda MBS has championed.
The two milestone summits—with MBS and the GCC leaders—are Riyadh’s attempts to showcase the Crown Prince as an aspiring leader of the Middle East and a key partner for global powers.
To ensure this, the Saudis rolled out a red carpet for Xi Jinping, welcoming him with pomp and ceremony, and signed a strategic partnership pact, in a signal to US President Joe Biden whose recent visit was lackluster.
The US is warily watching this power shift in the Middle East and the growing influence of economic rival Beijing in the region, where China has a vested interest as the world’s biggest energy consumer and Chinese firms are expanding into technology and other infrastructure.
Xi’s visit came when Riyadh’s long-standing alliance with Washington has been strained over human rights issues, energy policy, and Russia, as well as Gulf doubts about the commitment of main security guarantor America to the region.
At the start of the China-GCC summit, MBS hailed a “historic new phase of relations with China.”
He pledged Gulf states would remain “a safe and reliable source to supply the world with its energy needs,” underlining that oil and gas would continue to be significant energy sources for decades.
Beijing and Riyadh committed to enhancing cooperation and stressed principles of sovereignty and “non-interference” while affirming the importance of a peaceful solution to the Ukraine conflict.
Saudi Arabia and Gulf allies have defied the US pressure to break with fellow OPEC-plus oil producer Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and to limit dealings with China, as they try to navigate a polarised world order with an eye on national economic and security interests.
Oil giant Saudi Arabia is a top supplier to China and the joint statement reaffirmed the importance of global market stability and energy collaboration while striving to boost non-oil trade and enhance cooperation in peaceful nuclear power.
“The two sides reaffirmed they will continue to firmly support each other’s core interests,” they said in a statement.
In a nod to Gulf security concerns over Iran, another important oil supplier to China and with whom Beijing has good ties, they agreed on the need to “strengthen joint cooperation to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program” and for Tehran to respect “principles of good-neighborliness.”
Riyadh also supported Beijing’s “One China” policy on Taiwan.
President Xi Jinping said his visit heralded a “new era” in relations. “China looks forward to working with Saudi Arabia and Arab states to turn the two summits into milestone events in the history of China-Arab relations and China-GCC relations, and bring these relations to new heights,” the foreign ministry cited Xi as saying.
With the Xi visit, Chinese tech giant Huawei also entered the Middle East in a big way. Diplomats said the GCC members inked a Mou with Huawei on cloud computing and building high-tech complexes in Saudi cities. Huawei has taken part in building 5G networks in most Gulf states despite U.S. concerns over a security risk in using its technology.