Saudi-Sino strategic partnership…. Shazia Anwer Cheema
Once I read that in international relations, no country is strong enough to tailor its foreign policy freely; not even its friends but its enemies also influence its diplomatic dimensions. Interestingly I am observing how much this statement is true.
From December 7 to 9, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia. The agenda of the visit was the China-Saudi bilateral agreement, participation in the first Arab Summit, and participation in the Gulf Summit.
Both summits were arranged by Saudi Arabia, especially for the visit of President Xi. The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported that China and Saudi Arabia had signed 34 investment agreements within the framework of President Xi’s visit. The agreements cover “several sectors in the fields of green energy, green hydrogen, photovoltaic energy, information technology, cloud services, transportation, logistics, medical industries, housing and construction factories”. I think the most significant agreement for China was the Huawei Technologies agreement worth $30 billion.
Chinese state media covered this visit extensively and hundreds of Chinese media- persons were present in Riyadh for covering back-to-back events. They called the first China-Arab States Summit one of the most significant events having taken place in the recent past. The summit issued the Riyadh Declaration signed by heads of the state of 21 countries, announcing that China and the Arab states agreed to make all-out efforts to build a China-Arab community with a shared future in the new era President Xi delivered a keynote speech entitled “Carrying Forward the Spirit of China-Arab Friendship and Jointly Building a China-Arab Community with a Shared Future in the New Era” at the summit. His speech is a real roadmap for China’s future involvement in the Arab world. He also attended the China-Gulf Summit comprising six gulf nations: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Foreign ministers of the member countries attended the summit.
West seemed skeptical, and rightfully so, was that the Chinese President’s purple carpet reception by Saudi Arabia is not something considered a routine diplomatic event. Saudi Arabia, a seasoned US ally, exhibits clear signs that it has more options today compared to yesteryears. The demand of the US for increasing oil production is already rejected by OPEC that sent a loud and clear message to US allies in Europe that Washington has again botched down in diplomacy as was in Afghanistan and President Joe Biden has to swallow the bitter pill of yet another catastrophic diplomatic failure.
America tried its level best to get out of the crude oil dependency, starting from Libya to Iraq, and Syria, of course. The oil hunt was done in the backdrop of the war on terror that was actually portrayed as a war for peace. So it eventually dragged
the US into Afghanistan that became another Vietnam for it, but more drastic than actual Vietnam. This oil poaching did not turn out to be fruitful for Washington and drained all its energies; and constant terror-hunting provided ample time for China to build solid foundations for its future strategic structures.
After fleeing from Afghanistan, Biden realised and said, “We are putting everything else on the back burner and Indo-Pacific is our priority.” Nonetheless, oil starvation compelled him to visit Saudi Arabia and he said, “We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China.” In my opinion, it was too late for a realisation of that magnitude, and Saudi Arabia cannot forget statements such as “West Asia is not a priority, and Asia-Pacific is a priority.”
The US was in the dark that a priority and a non-priority could align to set their mutual priorities. Western media is beating about the bush with a given script and I will quote, “Two authoritarian nations [China and Saudi Arabia] are seeking new partnerships in a multipolar world.” The excessive use of the adjective ‘authoritarian’ is a slapstick move to make the over-exploited word ‘humanity’. One analyst on France 24 went to the length of saying that China and Saudi Arabia can get along well, as there will be no human rights issues to be kept in mind. He claimed America’s intact humanity and reprimanding capability made authoritarian nations uncomfortable, now they can play by their rules, putting humanity on the back burner. Western experts have even given a name to the Sino-Saudi relationship ‘a marriage of convenience’.
Western media is not discussing how tired the world has gotten of putting up with Western hegemony and desperately looking for new strategic alignment based on mutual respect and equal benefits. The credit for China’s successful diplomacy goes to the US, which has created a vacuum by bullying and harassing the rest of the world which will be filled eventually.