Blinken does not need Saudi Arabia to draw closer to China after countries choose sides between the United States

Blinken does not need Saudi Arabia to draw closer to China after countries choose sides between the United States

Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Sunday (June 11) opened a two-day “China-Arab business conference”, the first day of the signing of a $10 billion investment agreement between China and Arab States. Last week, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said during a visit to the country by U.S. Secretary of State Blinken that cooperation between Saudi Arabia and China would be strengthened.

Prince Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, told a China-Arab business conference that his country wanted to work with China rather than compete, adding that he “brushed aside” growing Western suspicions about Sino-Saudi ties. “Because as a businessman, now when the opportunity comes, you go. China’s oil demand is still growing, so of course we have to capture some of that demand.”

According to the Saudi Investment Ministry, the two-day conference gathered more than 3,500 Chinese and Saudi Arabian business leaders and representatives; The $10bn of investment deals signed on the first day of the conference cover sectors as diverse as technology, agriculture, renewable energy, real estate, natural resources and tourism.

From June 6 to 8, Blinken visited Saudi Arabia, following CIA Director Burns in April and National Security Adviser Sullivan in May, in an effort to forge closer ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Blinken said at the press conference that the United States has always been very clear that the United States does not ask anyone to choose between the United States and China, the United States only wants to prove the benefits of partnership with us and the positive agenda we bring.

Appearing with Blinken at the press conference, Saudi Foreign Minister Ahmed Faise also said that Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the United States or China is not a “zero-sum game”, although China is the largest trading partner, but Saudi Arabia’s security partnership with the United States, “almost every day there are new developments.” The Saudis are capable of multiple partnerships, as is the United States, “and frankly, I think we can have a partnership that crosses all borders.”

Military experts believe that as the security threat posed by Iran grows and the US shifts its focus to the Indo-Pacific region, Middle Eastern countries are likely to adjust their security structures and foreign policies accordingly.

In recent years, China has been strengthening economic, trade and diplomatic ties with the Middle East region, which is an important energy supplier and trading partner for China. Between 2005 and 2022, China invested more than $273 billion in the Middle East.

On June 6, the Iranian embassy in Saudi Arabia officially reopened after a seven-year closure, and Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed in March to restore diplomatic relations in a Chinese-brokered deal that shook up the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East. China has also held joint naval exercises with Russia and Iran in the Gulf of Oman, near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. While China’s influence in the Middle East is concentrated in the energy, economic, and diplomatic spheres, the United States also needs to guard against a future expansion of China’s military and security footprint.