This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Saudi Arabia for talks that could result in tens of billions of dollars being spent there.
Dr. Theodore Karasik, a fellow on Russian and Middle Eastern politics at the Jamestown Foundation, told FOX Business, “I would say that this is a huge turning point.” Beijing is no longer a rival to them, and it’s likely a turning point for the region in terms of China’s presence.
“The logical choice for the Saudis is to migrate east,” he continued, “because of the altering security environment and because of where geoeconomics is moving.”
Xi will arrive in Saudi Arabia on Thursday to begin three days of talks between the two leaders with the goal of advancing their already promising relationship: As per the Saudi Press Agency, China has been Saudi Arabia’s top exporter and importer since 2018.
The murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, allegedly carried out with the direct consent of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has soured relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia and thrown a shadow over all future dealings between the two countries.
The United States did not appear to see the kind of advancement they had hoped for from Biden’s recent visit to Riyadh during the summer. According to reports made after the visit, the prince was not impressed with the president.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have clashed over oil production as gas prices rose as a result of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and as OPEC+ refused to back out of its plan to cut production over the upcoming months, according to Biden. This raises concerns that Saudi Arabia’s agenda may be more in line with that of Russia than with that of the United States.
According to Gordon Chang, a senior scholar at the Gladstone Institute and a specialist on China, Biden’s pursuit of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran—which would bring the country new funding worth billions of dollars—would make life more challenging for Saudi Arabia.
Chang told FOX Business that because Biden’s Mideast strategy favors Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iran’s adversary, is enraged with Washington. The Saudi royals are now more receptive to cooperating with China as a result.
He continued, “We should not be startled by the region’s shifting away from Washington. On January 20, 2021, America changed from having the best, most effective Mideast policy to having the worst one.
“We cannot assume there won’t be any negative effects. We are rapidly losing allies in Riyadh and the capitals of the Gulf Cooperation Council, among other things.”
And as the crown prince seeks additional investment from China, Xi’s visit may widen the gap even further. However, the kingdom has already created contracts considerably in excess of that with China, such as the $500 billion NEOM zone project, which significantly exceeds the $100 billion in contracts for the U.S. military industry that resulted from former President Donald Trump’s visit in 2017.
According to a U.S. State Department spokesperson who talked to FOX Business, the Chinese foreign ministry should be consulted over the specifics of the visit. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson declined to comment during a press conference on Tuesday.
The spokesperson for the State Department emphasized that the Biden administration has “consistently” emphasized the fact that the United States has never demanded that other nations “choose between the United States and the PRC” or “any other country.”
In order to make the United States and what we offer to the table the most alluring alternative, the spokesperson added, “Our goal is to provide countries across the world a choice.” “The United States remains firmly committed to maintaining security in the Middle East, and we have an unrivaled comparative advantage in forging alliances, forming joint ventures, and integrating defensive institutions.”
With the globe moving away from oil and gas and some nations already forbidding the construction of gas-powered cars in the next 20 years, the crown prince has concentrated on aiding in the diversification of his kingdom’s economic interests.
According to the Saudi Press Agency, side meetings held during the Saudi-Chinese summit may lead to more than 20 agreements worth SAR110 billion, or about $29 billion, as well as additional strategic partnership agreements between the two nations.
According to Karasik, the specifics of those agreements and the concessions that each party ultimately makes will show how similar the two countries’ objectives are.
According to Karasik, the best result for the United States would be for some of these agreements to remain memoranda of understanding or for there to be no clear consensus between particular Gulf States and Asia during the three summits.
