Chinese President Xi's visit to Saudi, rousing reception is a warning to Biden, says expert

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman early this week, kicking off his three-day visit to the gulf region.

The two leaders stressed on the importance of global oil market stability and Saudi Arabia’s role in achieving this balance.

According to the Saudi press agency, the countries have signed agreements worth around $30 billion, which include setting up a Huawei cloud-computing region and building an EV manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, columnist and lawyer Gordon Chang said President Xi's visit to Saudi and the rousing reception is a warning to Biden administration.

“This summit between Saudi and China is a warning to Biden administration that they cannot humiliate Saudi Arabia and give it a hard time and think that there would be no consequences. President Biden’s July trip to the region and to Saudi Arabia had such a cold reception compared to Xi Jinping’s visit in which Xi is getting all the royal flourishes, so this is really a stark contrast,” Chang said.

Chang added that many countries in the region want robust relations with China but are wary about its relationship with Iran.

“Countries in the region generally want robust commercial relations with China. So it is no surprise that Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council of Countries want these robust ties. However at the same time they are very concerned about China having robust relations with Iran and Iran is their enemy. So this is the point where they realise that they do need the US for security but they sort of take that for granted,” Chang said.

According to Anil Trigunayat, a former diplomat, countries doing diplomacy with China are not factoring India-China relations.

Trigunayat said, “China is going to be India’s geostrategic competition in every geography. When these countries are looking at Act East, they are looking at India and China together. They are not looking at a conflict situation between India and China. So that is why you are looking at various tri-laterals and quadrilaterals coming up in the Middle East. As far as India is concerned, we need to sit up and look at other opportunities that are there and be fast and agile on them.”