International Relations | China and Saudi Arabia praised their relations and signed dozens of agreements

Foreign countries|International relations

China’s president Xi Jinping concluded a three-day state visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday. At the end of the visit, the countries published a very friendly joint statement and announced that they had signed dozens of memorandums of understanding between states and countries’ companies.

The statement declared friendship and said that the two countries would further strengthen their “comprehensive strategic partnership”. Cooperation is planned in the areas of both energy and security.

During the visit, Xi discussed with the King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the crown prince of the country’s de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman with. In addition, he participated in the joint summits hosted by Saudi Arabia within the framework of the organizations of the countries of the Arab League and the countries of the Persian Gulf.

Warm-hearted the state visit was interpreted in the western media as a direct challenge to the United States, which has an increasingly sharp attitude towards the economic giant China and for which Saudi Arabia is an important but difficult ally in the unstable Middle East.

China and Saudi Arabia promised not to interfere in each other’s internal affairs, which can be interpreted as a clear nod to the United States, which has criticized both countries for human rights violations.

The official mouthpiece of China’s leaders The People’s Daily pointed out, for example, that Saudi Arabia gave its full support to China’s efforts to tame radicalism in its country. This can be read as referring to the province of Xinjiang, where China brutally oppresses its Uyghur minority – in the US’s view, in a manner equivalent to genocide.

News agency Reuters and American CNN channel both noted that Xi received a much warmer and more generous reception from the Saudis than the US president who visited Saudi Arabia earlier this year Joe Biden.

Before becoming president, Biden promised to push Saudi Arabia to the position of a stretcher for the war in Yemen and the journalist Jamal Khashoggi because of dismemberment. As president, he has had to soften his stance against the Middle Eastern oil giant.

In November, the United States granted Crown Prince bin Salman immunity from prosecution in the lawsuit brought against him, in which bin Salman is accused of ordering the murder of Khashoggi in Istanbul, Turkey in 2018. On Tuesday of this week, an American judge had to dismiss the case brought against bin Salman due to the crown prince’s immunity from prosecution.

US President Joe Biden met Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in July. Picture: POOL / Reuters

Xi Jinping hoped in his speech on Friday to the leaders of the Arab countries that they would in the future accept payments made in the Chinese currency yuan in oil transactions. Abandoning the dollar would be a shock to US dominance in world trade.

According to a Saudi source interviewed by the news agency Reuters, accepting the yuan for Saudi Arabia could be economically reasonable on a small scale, but the time is not yet ripe for such a thing.

In October The United States appealed to Saudi Arabia, that it would not cut its oil production. Reducing production increases the price of oil, which benefits Russia, which is waging a war of aggression in Ukraine. Saudi Arabia did not listen to the United States.

China’s and Saudi Arabia’s representatives were said to have signed a total of 46 different memorandums of understanding during Xi’s visit, some of which were interstate and some were intercompany cooperation agreements.

Xi Jinping last visited Saudi Arabia in 2016. Crown Prince bin Salman, on the other hand, visited China in 2019.

The corona pandemic caused Xi’s tourism to take a break lasting two and a half years. Xi visited the United States in 2017 when he was leading the country Donald Trump.