And U.S Secretary of State Anthony blinkins a visit to Saudi Arabia seems that it wasn’t as fruitful for Washington because Saudi it’s now closing up to China to strengthen bilateral and economic ties absolutely now this comes just days after blinken’s visit to Riyadh stabilizes the strained relations between Washington and Riyadh
Now Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic relations with the United States previously went through a rough patch that is when the U.S intelligence claimed that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder of journalist Jamal khashoggi a fierce critic of his government right at the Saudi China business conference on Sunday Saudi Ministry of
Energy Prince Abdul Aziz expressed that Riyadh will go wherever there is a business opportunity earlier in Mount Saudi State oil giant Sadi ramko signed two major deals with China and this raised multi-billion dollar investment and became China’s biggest provider of crude oil at the Sunday’s conference Saudi Finance
Minister said that China is Arab world’s largest trade partner the volume of trade exchange between Riyadh and Beijing had reached a record 106 billion dollars in 2022. last year Chinese resident Xi Jinping had also expressed his desire to purchase oil from Saudi in Chinese one A Move That Could weaken the U.S Dollar’s
Global dominance in the long run Saudi hopes that in the coming years Chinese investors will explore and find more opportunities to further investments in the Arab world now the hope is also Aisha to ratify the free trade deal between China and Saudi Arabia that’s been ongoing since 2004. Absolutely and to talk more on this we’re now being joined by retired Colonel Rich utsan he’s a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in turkey and a geopolitical analyst thank you so much for joining us and Beyond Professor now uh good to be with you now
Saudi Arabia says that it does not want to compete with China but rather collaborate with China do you see this as a rise of China ties in the Gulf region well I don’t think this is so much about China as it is about the nature of the International System and the regional
System in the Middle East the reality of multi-polarity is that everyone needs to deal with everyone we’re not dealing with the Cold War Paradigm anymore where it’s the U.S against the Soviet Union or even the post Cold War a paradigm of the last 20 years in which it’s the U.S
Against the axis of Evil the truth is that we have multiple partners and multiple competitors in every region of the world in East Asia and South Asia and in the Middle East as well so when President Biden came in saying that uh Imam had been Saudi Arabia was a pariah
And that we were going to use unilateral power to marginalize them and change his behavior this was sort of the an echo of the previous era in which the United States had unilateral power and the the ability to just sort of uh peremptorily say that a country should do x or y
That’s not the world we’re in right now we’re in is very competitive it’s multi-axial Saudi Arabia is a a premium case of this in which not just this year but even last year when they were ignoring Biden’s uh requests to increase oil production to meet U.S price and
Targets and they said no we’re not going to do that so that we saw again with the Iran Saudi reconciliation or reproachment that was brokered by Beijing and now this latest meeting in which the the Saudi officials say yes we you know we’re not taking sides in this
A perfect example of the fact that Saudi Arabia like many countries in the region has adapted to multi-polarity the question is whether the United States has or not two major deals to raise its multi-billion dollar investment in China now with growing Saudi Arabia and China
Ties how do you think that this is being viewed in Washington well I think Washington is a very internally focused right now we are a year and a couple of months out from a major election internally so uh the fact that any of our International Partners
Does xor y is not attracting that much uh attention to be honest with you I think in general there’s a perception in Washington that the by the administration is misplayed Saudi Arabia and certainly on the Republican side of the Nile and under in full transparency I I come from the conservative side of
The political Spectrum in the U.S there’s this idea that by being very preachy Yeah by being very preachy early in the administration that the Biden team uh sort of missed some opportunities with Saudi Arabia and yet it’s still a competitive game so I would say that uh
It’s not a view that Saudi Arabia has flipped somehow and has become approached China country it’s just the idea that look we have to compete when it comes to energy when it comes to security when it comes to geopolitical rivalry the United States needs to do a better job of convincing countries like
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and turkey that we are their friends and that we have more to offer than uh than China or Russia and right now that’s really not the case right right now it seems like a confused message from Washington right kernel will of course be tracking
These shifting equations in the West Asia but thank you so much for joining us today on and sharing your insights with us on this thanks very much good to see you
