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MBS visits China

February 24, 2019 | Expert Insights

The Saudi Crown prince continues his Asian charm offensive and landed in Beijing to a warm reception. After visiting Pakistan and India, MBS will be looking forward to more agreements on a wide range of agenda items with China.

Background

Prior to the 1990s, bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and the People's Republic of China (PRC) did not exist. In 1975, Saudi Arabia refused to recognize the PRC as a country, despite the PRC's desire to establish relations and acceptance of Saudi Arabian policies. It is said that "oil is the backbone of the relationship", while Saudi Arabia has long relied on China for arms sales, including weapons the former could not acquire from anywhere. At present, China and Saudi Arabia are close and strategic allies, with the relationship getting significantly warmer between the two.           

In recent years, China and Saudi Arabia have been increasing cooperation in the energy and financial sectors, One Belt One Road Initiative, and they have signed numerous deals across several areas. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman also hinted that China could boost its diplomatic footprint in the Middle East while stating that “Saudi Arabia is willing to work hard with China to promote global and regional peace, security and prosperity”.

Analysis

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has arrived in China where he will meet President Xi Jinping in hopes of bolstering an image tarnished internationally over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last year.

The two-day visit in Beijing is expected to focus on energy deals for resource-hungry China and regional economic agreements that align with Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative [BRI], Xi's signature infrastructure initiative spanning across Southeast, South and Central Asia to the Horn of Africa.

"The leadership in Riyadh and Beijing probably realise the strategic importance of their relationship on the energy front and most recent attempts have been driving it towards cooperation in other areas," Ayham Kamel, Middle East and North Africa expert with the Eurasia Group told Al Jazeera.

China is Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade in goods totalling $63.3bn last year. In 2017, during the last major state visit to Beijing by Saudi Arabia's King Salman, the two sides signed deals worth around $65bn, mostly related to energy and technology.

"[MBS] is looking for building greater confidence with the Chinese leadership, demonstrating that he has options beyond the West, and showcasing that he remains the heart of the leadership circle and the next king of Saudi Arabia," Kamel said.

Besides an audience with Xi, the crown prince will meet Vice Premier of the State Council, Han Zheng, who will chair a China-Saudi High-Level Joint Committee meeting where deals will likely be hashed out.

Zhu Weilie, director of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum Research Center, wrote in the Shanghai Observer that he believed "development of the economic zone along the Red Sea coast and cooperation on energy" would be the main focus of the talks beginning on Thursday.

The zone, launched by MBS in 2017 under the acronym NEOM is expected to receive around $500bn in investments from Riyadh upon completion.

With China, the third and final leg of an Asia tour that saw MBS attempt to sidestep friction during high-level meetings in Pakistan and India.  Yet Beijing is also attempting a balancing act of its own, having just hosted Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister of Iran just two days before MBS landed in Beijing. At the same time, one of the crown jewels of its BRI programme - Gwadar Port in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan - sits at the fulcrum.

Assessment

Our assessment is that the growing Saudi-China trade relation and regional cooperation is a result of increasing Chinese presence in West Asia. We believe that the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) program has multiplied China’s influence over the region with lucrative investment opportunities. We also feel that Saudi Arabia is targeting heavy Chinese investments into its “Vision 2030” plan in order to diversify its excessively oil-dependent economy.