2024-07-19 04:22:11
Riyadh: In June this year, Saudi Arabia’s Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman visited China. Very little information was made public by both China and Saudi Arabia about his visit. During this visit, the Saudi Defence Minister met his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission Zhang Youxia. Publicly, both sides said they are “open to cooperation” and discussed “coordinating efforts to promote international peace and security”. The visit fuelled speculation that Riyadh may look to Beijing to ease pressure from Washington on issues such as human rights and its stance on the Israel-Gaza war.
Saudi Arabia is buying weapons from China
Conflicts and tensions in the Middle East will undoubtedly be on the agenda, according to defense experts. So will Saudi Arabia’s growing purchases of weapons from China. But Saudi Arabia still regards the US as its key security partner – even as it steps up its rapprochement with and purchases of weapons from China. China is believed to have modest but growing influence in the region, having brokered the restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran last year.
China is looking at the Gulf crisis as an opportunity
The US has urged China to use its influence over Iran to rein in Tehran-backed Houthi militants who attack shipping in the Red Sea. The attacks are a result of the Israel-Gaza war, a conflict that Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the US-based think tank Rand Corporation, said would have been discussed at the Beijing meetings. “China would have talked about the Gaza war and also hoped to reassure Saudi Arabia that China is not supporting Iran over its Sunni rivals. Instead, China would try to portray itself as neutral and hope to encourage peace,” he said.
Saudi Arabia does not trust China
Jesse Marks, a nonresident fellow at the Stimson Center’s China program and a former US defense adviser, said Riyadh had low expectations of China’s role in the conflict. “China will raise rhetoric but neither the US nor Saudi Arabia sees China as a credible mediator in the current conflicts in Gaza or the Red Sea,” Marks said. “Beijing has taken no meaningful action to encourage a ceasefire in Gaza. When the US and its coalition approached China to help address the Houthi crisis, China chose not to get involved and instead used the period of instability to raise rhetoric against the US and tarnish its image in the region.”
Saudi is strengthening economic relations with China
Heath said: “China is building on its strong economic relationship with Saudi Arabia by increasing arms sales, so that is also likely to be part of the conversation … They are meeting now to follow up on major arms sales and defence cooperation.” Washington remains Riyadh’s biggest arms supplier, but Saudi Arabia has increased its imports of Chinese weapons in recent years, mainly in response to a three-year ban on US sales to the kingdom from 2021 over its human rights record.
How much weapons is China selling to Saudi Arabia
According to a Bloomberg report, Saudi Arabia signed a USD 4 billion arms deal with China in 2022, including deals for armed drones, ballistic missiles and anti-drone laser-based systems. Also showcased at the Riyadh Defence Expo earlier this year were China’s FC-31 fighter jets, which rival the US’s F-35, and its Wing Loong-2 drones used by Saudi Arabia to fight in Yemen. Song Zhongping, a former People’s Liberation Army (PLA) instructor, said the high-level meetings in Beijing continued the “long-standing” military cooperation between the two countries.