by Shaher Shaher *
Arab countries need Chinese investments with high added value, not only to obtain natural resources of global value in terms of manufacturing and logistical services, but also to link the region to each other, to its surroundings in Africa and Europe, and in Asia, which is led by China today.
The Arab-Chinese Businessmen Forum was held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on the 11-12 of this month, in its tenth session, during which the “new Chinese-Arab belt road” was announced, which will open broad prospects for future cooperation between China and Arab countries under the title of development and mutual benefit for both sides.
This forum came with Saudi Arabia presiding over the Council of the League of Arab States this year, to embody the interest of all Arab countries, not just Saudi Arabia, in strengthening relations with China.
Syria was invited to participate in the work of this conference. On its sidelines, a session of Syrian-Saudi talks was held, during which it was announced that economic relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia would resume after a break that lasted several years. Chinese involvement in enhancing cooperation with Arab countries intersects with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which has increased the chances of cooperation and success between the two countries.
China sees the Arab countries as a development partner with whom it has distinguished relations, while the United States does not see in the Arab region anything but an important geo-strategic region that must be controlled and controlled, because this will help influence many countries of the world that depend on the Arab region in oil field or as a route for the passage of its international trade.
As for the Arab countries, they need Chinese investments with high added value, not only obtaining natural resources of global value in terms of manufacturing and logistical services, but also linking the region to each other, to its surroundings in Africa and Europe, and in Asia, which is led by China today.
The Saudi-Chinese relations have witnessed a great development during the past years, as the US President Joe Biden’s administration helped turn around the Kingdom and the desire of the “new Saudi Arabia” to diversify its partnerships and alliances, taking advantage of the “historic moment” that the world is experiencing after the war in Ukraine, which The kingdom’s strategic importance doubled as the world’s second largest oil producer.
China’s desire to strengthen its relations with the Arab countries with which it has great historical and commercial relations has contributed, given the great importance these countries have in relation to the “Belt and Road” project that the Chinese president put forward in 2013 as the greatest and largest strategic project in history.
This was aided by the “strategic contraction” of the United States and its stated desire to get out of the Middle East region to devote itself to facing the greatest danger for it (China). border with Afghanistan.
In light of this international scene, everyone realized that the world was changing, and that the war in Ukraine was the first practical step towards changing the existing international order and striving to form a new international order that might be bipolar or multipolar according to the map of the positioning of the new international powers.
The visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in December 2022, and his holding of 3 summits there (a Chinese-Arab summit, a Chinese-Gulf summit, and a Chinese-Saudi summit), came to confirm the importance of the Kingdom to China first, as well as the importance of Arab countries in particular. in general, and the Gulf ones in particular, with regard to Beijing. During this summit, Saudi Arabia and China signed investment agreements worth $50 billion.
The Kingdom has been able to present itself as the leader of the Arab countries, as it is the largest economy in the Middle East and the fastest growing in the world over the past year. Likewise, Saudi Arabia is committed to serving as a bridge linking the Arab world to China, in light of the decline in the Egyptian role for many political and economic reasons after the events of the “Arab Spring” that weakened the active “Northern countries” (Syria, Egypt and Libya).
Saudi Arabia has become China’s largest trading partner, and the volume of trade exchange between the two countries this year is expected to reach $104 billion, 29 times more than it was 20 years ago.
Likewise, the volume of trade exchange between China and the GCC countries this year is expected to exceed $233 billion. As for the trade exchange between China and the Arab countries, it is expected that it will exceed 430 billion dollars this year, which exceeds the volume of trade exchange between the Arab countries with the United States and the countries of the European Union combined, in the sense that the partnership between China and the Arab countries is real, existing, present and developing greatly.
The importance of the Kingdom lies in the fact that it is the second largest oil producer in the world, while China is the largest consumer of oil in the world, as the volume of oil that China imported from Saudi Arabia last year amounted to 1.8 million barrels per day, which means that China bought more oil from the Kingdom than the oil it imported from Saudi Arabia. It bought it from Russia, with which it has an evolving strategic partnership. Also, the Kingdom is located on the Silk Road, and its share amounts to 13% of the global trade volume for this project.
China has realized that its involvement in establishing relations with Arab countries will entail political and security obligations. Therefore, it sought to be a sponsor of reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and in the future it will seek to play mediation roles to solve many intractable problems in the Middle East, especially the Palestinian issue.
On the security level, although Beijing seems unenthusiastic or willing to play a role in this field, the countries of the region need a military and security ally, as they are small countries that suffer from a state of “strategic exposure” and enjoy great wealth and an important strategic location that makes them the focus of others’ ambitions. from countries.
From here, there was talk about the transfer and localization of the drone industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and there was also talk about the possibility of nuclear cooperation between the two countries. What is comfortable for the Arab countries in their dealings with China is that they do not expect interference from the Chinese government in their internal affairs. Beijing does not impose certain political conditions on the countries it deals with, which makes it feel more comfortable than its relations with Washington, which always sets undesirable political conditions from the countries of the region.
Despite the great development in relations between Saudi Arabia and China, there are some obstacles that still prevent these relations from reaching the required level. On the economic front, there was talk of the possibility of signing a free trade agreement between the two countries when the Chinese president visited the Kingdom, but this did not materialize.
The issue was raised again a few days ago, as there was talk about the possibility of signing this agreement during the Arab-Chinese businessmen conference held this month in Riyadh, but that did not materialize either.
It seems that the obstacle to signing the free partnership agreement between China and Saudi Arabia is the existence of a unified trade agreement between the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and therefore the Kingdom is committed to that agreement. Therefore, signing the agreement with China requires the approval of the rest of the Gulf countries, and it seems that the Kingdom is not seeking to provoke Washington further.
On the first day of this forum, 30 deals worth $10 billion were signed. The volume of deals that were signed during it is estimated at about $40 billion. Thus, this forum is the largest since its first session, which was held in 2005, as more than 3,500 personalities representing 20 countries participated in it, with the aim of discussing ways to develop relations between Arab countries and China.
Although the opening between Saudi Arabia and China is relatively recent, the relations between them are witnessing a great development, embodied in the mutual visits between officials of the two countries, the significant growth in the volume of trade exchange between them, and the talk of cooperation in the military and security fields.
All this indicates, beyond any doubt, that the United States is no longer the strategic partner of the Kingdom, and therefore, the region is going to formulate a new map for its relations and alliances, entitled common interests, mutual respect, and refusal to interfere in the internal affairs of the countries of the region, which is embodied in every way. Its details are in the Chinese ally.
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* Shaher Shaher is a Professor of International Studies at Sun Yat-Sen University – China.
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