Sputnik News
The burgeoning Sino-Saudi relationship could get a little more shored up later this year as the Chinese leader is expected to travel to Riyadh for talks.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Saudi Arabia before the end of 2022, according to US media.
Sino-Saudi trade has steadily increased since they established relations in 1990, with China buying up 27% of Saudi oil exports last year. At the end of 2021, annual bilateral trade amounted to $87.31 billion. Between January and August 2022, Saudi Aramco delivered an average of 1.76 million barrels per day of petroleum to China.
Riyadh has long supported China’s positions on key issues, including its sovereignty over Taiwan and its deradicalization policies in Xinjiang.
Speaking at a meeting with Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan Al Saud of Saudi Arabia last month, Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi told reporters that Beijing “attaches great importance to developing relations with Saudi Arabia, taking Saudi Arabia as a priority in its overall diplomacy, its Middle East diplomacy in particular.”
“China also appreciates Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of an independent energy policy and its active efforts to maintain stability in the international energy market,” Wang said, adding that “China supports Saudi Arabia in playing a greater role in international and regional affairs, and stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Saudi Arabia on hot-spot issues in the Middle East, so as to jointly uphold regional peace and stability.”
Those goals broadly reflect the results of a summit between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council in September, which particularly concerned grain access for the Arab nations threatened by the loss of Ukrainian exports in particular. Those shipments have since partly resumed, although they paused recently when Kiev forces used the safety corridor established for grain shipments to mount a drone attack on the Russian city of Sevastopol.
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