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China has announced that foreign visitors will no longer be subject to the previously stringent COVID-driven quarantine requirements. It wasn’t long ago that Xi Jinping, who had just completed his third coronation as president, made an overseas trip to Saudi Arabia. There, Chinese leaders met with their Saudi counterparts to sign a series of agreements underscoring expanded ties between the two countries.
Many observers viewed Xi’s two-day visit to Riyadh a couple of weeks ago as a “sneak” to Washington, especially after President Biden’s visit to the kingdom in July accomplished virtually nothing. there is Xi and King Salman signed what they called a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement.” The Chinese president has claimed that this constitutes a “new era” of relations between the two countries. Again, in contrast to the outcome of the Biden visit, Xi and the King agreed to hold a summit every two years.
Xi’s visit was also an opportunity for Chinese and Saudi businesses to sign 34 agreements. The agreement covers all economic activities such as tourism, green energy, transportation, logistics, medical industry, information technology, genetics, mining and construction. The two countries also signed an agreement to “harmonize” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious Vision 2030. It seeks to transform his country’s economy, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative has collapsed in recent years.
China is the world’s largest oil importer, and Saudi Arabia has also vowed to become a “reliable partner” for China’s energy needs.
If the tone and atmosphere of Xi Jinping’s love celebration in the kingdom’s capital wasn’t enough to upset Washington, his visit also marked the signing of an extensive memorandum of understanding with Chinese tech giant Huawei. In a policy that enjoys broad bipartisan support, Washington has criticized Huawei for being a key cog in Beijing’s international espionage, including espionage of U.S. military communications. The memorandum therefore underscores the increasingly cold relationship between the United States and its longtime allies.
But China’s increased economic engagement with Saudi Arabia does not necessarily translate into a security relationship. As a former Prime Minister of Pakistan once told me, China may indeed be an “all-weather friend,” but there are severe limits to that friendship, whatever the weather. In particular, China has shown its reluctance to provide security to any country. Indeed, despite issuing a joint statement with Russia shortly before the invasion of Ukraine stating that “there are no limits to the friendly relations between the two countries and no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation,” the Chinese government has continued its strategy I don’t feel pressured to strengthen the partnership. Moscow’s urgent need for military supplies.
Moreover, China’s policy is to stay away from regional conflicts while extending its influence throughout the Middle East. In that regard, Beijing is party to another long-term partnership with the kingdom’s arch-enemy Iran. Moreover, in contrast to Beijing’s economic commitments to Saudi Arabia, the 25-year China-Iran cooperation pact signed by the two countries
Not only is a reported $400 billion Chinese investment in Iran by March 2021, but it also includes a major military component.
Indeed, China, together with Russia, held naval exercises in the northern Indian Ocean in January (there was also a joint exercise in 2019), and in late April, General Wei Fenghe, Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Defense, Heading a senior military delegation to Beijing for talks on military cooperation. Wei met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, his counterpart, Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, and Defense Department (AFGS) Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri. After meeting with Wei, Bagheri confirmed journalists’ speculation that China and Iran had “agreed to expand bilateral cooperation on joint military exercises, exchange of strategies, training issues, and other common areas.” .
None of this is welcome news for Riyadh, which is concerned about Iranian threats to its security. Saudi Arabia, which shares a common enemy, is expanding its security ties with Israel. But the Israelis, who have serious security needs of their own, are likely to come to Saudi Arabia’s aid, much like the aid the United States gave Kuwait after Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait in 1990. low.
So, after all, Riyadh needs to look to America to bolster its security. And even if Washington’s focus is on its European and Asian peers, if it finds Saudi Arabia desperately seeking help in the face of an imminent Iranian threat, its longstanding friendship with the United States Whatever the current differences with Saudi Arabia, the United States can certainly be trusted, unlike China, not to let them down when they are in dire need.
Dov S. Zakheim Institute for Strategic and International Studies Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors Foreign Policy InstituteHe served as Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and Acting Secretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.
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