After Blinken Visit, Saudi Arabia Looks to China for Business as US Sway Wanes - Bloomberg
Days after welcoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken as part of efforts to reset relations with the US, Saudi Arabia turned its attention to boosting ties with one of Washington’s main competitors: China.
For the past two days, the Saudi capital has played host to the largest ever Chinese-Arab business gathering. Under the chandeliers and vaulted ceilings of Riyadh’s grandest conference hall, Saudi officials spoke of integrating China into the Arab region and Chinese executives said they stood ready to “de-Americanize” the world’s top oil exporter. At lunch they mingled over a fusion of dim sum and local mutton.
“The time has come, in my view, for China to be a principal investment partner in the Arab world’s development drive,” Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih said in a keynote address on Sunday, suggesting the Arab economic powerhouse act as a “bridge” to the rest of the region.
As the Middle East has become less of a strategic priority for the US, it has left a political and economic vacuum in the region that its rival is rushing to fill.
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