President Xi Jinping arrives in Saudi Arabia to attend China-Arab States Summit

Asia-Pacific, Middle East, News December 8, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

China’s President Xi Jinping landed in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on December 7, 2022, to attend a summit with the leaders of oil-rich Gulf Arab states. The trip marks Xi’s third foreign trip since the COVID-19 pandemic and first trip to Saudi Arabia since 2016.

Governor of Riyadh, Prince Faisal bin Bandar Al Saud welcome the Chinese president at the airport as the flags of the two countries waved in the background. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investments Funds, Yasir al-Rumayyan were also present at the airport to welcome the Chinese president.

Xi Jinping has arrived in Saudi Arabia to attend the first summit between China and the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia along with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. All sides had been preparing for the event for more than two years.

Beijing described the meeting as a “milestone” in Sino-Arab relations. The summit would take place on December 7-9, 2022, and billions of dollar worth of agreements are expected to be signed during the summit.

The planes in King Khalid International Airport pulled out a flag-colored smoke belt. 🇨🇳 🇸🇦 #China #SaudiArabia pic.twitter.com/z9m9boUYDp
— Sui Lixi (@lixi_sui) December 7, 2022

The Chinese delegation is expected to sign dozens of agreements on several projects with the Arab states that could be worth more than $29 billion. Those projects include a futuristic $500 billion megacity known as Neom, a so-called “cognitive” city that will depend heavily on facial recognition and surveillance technology. Saudi Arabia seeks major assistance from Chinese firms on the Neom city project.

According to China’s state-owned media outlets, bilateral trade between the Arab world and China reached more than $300 billion in 2021, an increase of 37% over the previous year. In 2021, China imported 265 million tons of crude oil from Arab countries, which made up 51.6% of all imported crude oil.

China has established strategic partnerships with Arab countries at the bilateral level in recent times. According to a report on Sino-Arab cooperation released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, China intends to use the first Sino-Arab Summit as an opportunity to build what it calls a “Sino-Arab community of common destiny” with Arab countries.

*^{Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman traveled in 2019 to China, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (Image Credit: How Hwee Young/via Reuters)}*

The Chinese leader’s arrival in Saudi Arabia coincides with heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States over issues ranging from energy policy to regional security and human rights. The White House addressed the situation by stating that China’s attempts to exert its influence worldwide were “not conducive” to the international order.

The U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on December 7 that “We are mindful of the influence that China is trying to grow around the world. The Middle East is certainly one of those regions where they want to deepen their level of influence.” It was “certainly not a surprise that President Xi is traveling around,” Kirby said adding that the U.S. was focused on its own partnership in the region.