Finally both Peoples Republic of China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have made it.
The President Xi Jinping’s maiden visit to Saudi capital Riyadh comes at a time when Al- Saud’s long standing alliance with Washington has been strained over human rights issues, energy policy and Russia and the Gulf doubts about the main security guarantor America to the region.
Over the recent past there have been questions raised on the sincerity of US as guarantor of true regional security in the face of emergence of renewed Israeli offensive and also Yemen crisis that got bad to worse.
American President Joe Biden’s unprecedented anti-MBS stance in addition to an arms embargo on Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has utterly failed.
The Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s close propinquity to Sino-Russian Camp over the past sometime has ultimately shown USA her way back to pavilion.
Earlier, President Biden, this year had landed in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in person to envisage some reckoning to ensure an open and uncontrolled oil supply to the world in order to block Russian initiative to supply oil at cheaper price to the world nations, which had entered into an active conflict with Ukraine this year; but the damage control move as perceived, failed to yield desired results for him.
America has had a history of profound influence on KSA and the rest of Middle East countries for more or less hundred years molding and prevailing upon their internal and external policies with an unwavering and ardent support to the state of Israel and its stakes that actually delineated America’s central role in the Arabian Peninsula.
The emergence of China as a sole World economic behemoth over the past one decade, and more in the last five years, has altogether changed the global political horizon and that the Beijing’s manyfold need for energy paved way to her dependence on oil producing Arab nations which the young Turks of Arabia have taken full advantage of.
The Xi Jinping’s ingress to Middle East for mutual economic gains is thought to be an 180 degree shift in Saudi Arabia policy of which experts and analysts in America had been pointing out to over the past quite some time. The Chinese president is thought to have entered into a 33 to 40 billion dollar economic deal with KSA.
This paradigm shift has made China and the Gulf nations to undertake full use of Shangai petroleum and National Gas exchange as a platform to carry out Yuan settlement of oil and gas trade, as proposed. This will be the beginning of end of American Dollar based oil and gas trade.
This is pertinent to mention that China and Gulf States of the Cooperation Council (GCC) are natural partners for cooperation, Xi Jinping said at China-GCC summit.
The proposed mutual trade would ensure that China will continue to import large quantities of crude oil from GCC countries, expand imports of liquefied natural gas, strengthen cooperation in upstream oil and gas development, engineering services, storage transportation and refining.
The Chinese president has pleaded for readiness to strike a deal in other areas in next three to five years including finance and investment, innovation and new technologies as well as aerospace, language and cultures.
China will also carry out financial regulatory cooperation with GCC countries, facilitate GCC enterprises to enter China’s capital market, establish a joint investment association with GCC. KSA is reportedly involved in development of missile facility under Beijing’s guidance but under cover. Further covert cooperation of Beijing- Riyadh on robust defense technology transfer would be alarming to Tel -Aviv and also Tehran.
However, Tehran has lately also joined Chinese camp with a 400 billion Chinese investment for overall development. Beijing’s close proximity to both Tehran and Riyadh is highly expected to expedite a long lasting solution to Yemen crisis on which the two Muslim nations have shed blood in the recent past.
Witnessing China’s economic expansion all around the yesterday’s world economic hulk US has a big enough sect of experts mulling to advocate for joining Chinese world order changing CPEC in order to ensure her presence there.
The colossal spread of Chinese economic projects over the globe with her growing military might has rendered China invincible that is further strengthened by her camp allies, Russia, Central Asia, Iran, Turkey, North Korea and now Arabs. This, the experts in US strongly believe at a time when NATO is splitting away.
After exit from Afghanistan America might have been in search of a new war theatre to sell the logistic arsenal of her weapon industries, but the possibility of a renewed Gulf war is belittled by the presence of Chinese stakes in that region. Moreover midterm polls have shown in US, the Donald Trump’s victory over Biden as the masses in America have pacifist convictions and are growing opposite to President Biden’s Pentagon oriented policy.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.