Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the first stop on a tour of the Middle East that shows a new willingness by China to flex its diplomatic clout in one of the world’s most volatile regions.
The official Saudi Press Agency confirmed his arrival.
Xi’s five-day tour through Riyadh, Cairo and Tehran represents the president’s first foray into the Middle East since taking power three years ago and marks 60 years of relations between Beijing and the Arab League.
PHOTO: REUTERS
He is also seeking to protect Chinese influence that accumulated in Iran during the country’s long isolation, with Xi becoming the first major world leader to visit since the US and EU on Saturday lifted sanctions on the nation and cleared the way for its re-emergence in the global economy.
The trip might show China playing a more hands-on peacemaking role as the Syrian conflict exports violence around the world, regional powers quarrel along sectarian lines and US influence wanes.
China does not want more strife between Saudi Arabia — its largest source of foreign oil — and Iran, a potential strategic ally sitting at the crossroads of Xi’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative to build railways, pipelines and other infrastructure from Asia to Europe. He is to be the first top Chinese leader to visit Iran since 2002.
Chinese business interests in the region have been expanding for decades and the country is the top trading partner with all three nations on Xi’s tour. Saudi Arabia supplied China with 16 percent of its imported oil in 2014, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Xi, in an article published in Saudi Arabia’s al-Riyadh newspaper on Monday, praised robust bilateral economic cooperation, highlighting a light railway in Mecca built by China last year for providing “convenient service to Muslim pilgrims from around the globe.”
In Iran, Chinese interests prospered while sanctions over the country’s nuclear program blocked US and European competitors from the market. China buys 40 percent of Iran’s oil exports and has become the country’s top source of capital and technology.
With the sanctions lifted, China is counting on initiatives such as the US$40 billion fund for the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative to counter an influx of competition.
“China will face rivals in a market that heretofore was under sanctions and uncontested,” International Crisis Group Istanbul-based senior Iran analyst Ali Vaez said. “The timing of Xi’s visit in the wake of lifting the sanctions seems designed to ensure that China’s predominant position in the Iranian market is preserved.”
In November last year, China Railway Construction Corp, the national train operator, floated a proposal for a 3,200km high-speed train to Tehran from China’s western region of Xinjiang. Closer ties with Iran also offer a chance to reduce China’s dependence on Saudi oil.
Xi’s challenge is to promote stability in the region and expand business ties without being dragged into the same quagmires as the US.
China is now proposing a new role of “constructive engagement” and is urging Western powers to follow its example, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
In the run up to Xi’s trip, Chinese Communist Party leaders have dispatched envoys to Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia. They have hosted both the Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Walid al-Muallem and the country’s opposition leaders in Beijing. Last week, the government issued its first Arab policy paper, in which it vowed to deepen ties between the two sides.
One question is how long China can maintain neutrality in the Middle East as its own growing economic and military clout puts it into increased strategic competition with the US elsewhere in the world.
That rivalry favors closer ties with Iran — Washington’s long-time antagonist in the region — than Saudi Arabia, RAND Corp senior international defense analyst Timothy Heath said.
Besides oil, Tehran offers a potential partner in Xi’s effort to challenge the Western-dominated international order.
“China may quietly lean towards Iran,” Heath said. “Publicly, however, China can be expected to present an even-handed approach to bolster its image as a peacemaker.”
With additional reporting by AFP
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