China’s Xi vows to buy more oil from Middle East

Meeting. In this photo provided by the Saudi Press Agency, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, right, greets Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. Gulf Arab leaders and other countries in the Middle East met in Saudi Arabia on Friday as part of a state visit by the Chinese leader, seeking to cement ties with Beijing at a time when decades of U.S. focus on the region has waned. / Associated Press

Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed to import more oil and gas from energy-rich Gulf Arab states while not interfering in their affairs, possibly to put Beijing in a stronger position, on Friday, Dec. 9, 2022 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates More important than Washington, as U.S. focus on the region is waning.

Xi also urged Arab countries to conduct energy sales in yuan, potentially decoupling the dollar from transactions in the region, where the United States still maintains thousands of troops through a network of local bases as a hedge against Iran.

China’s hands-off approach is likely to appeal to leaders such as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, even after the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the still-existing international community’s widespread criticism. Bin Salman is still poised to rule the oil-rich kingdom for possibly decades. – Intense war in Yemen.

During Xi’s visit to Saudi Arabia this week, the prince himself welcomed him to a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) club and later a wider summit of Middle East leaders.

Xi Jinping said, standing at the crossroads of history, we must carry forward the tradition of friendship between China and the Sea.

Xi’s visit comes at a time when China relies on Gulf Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, to import billions of dollars in crude oil to power its national economy as it tries to slowly ease its strict anti-coronavirus policies. Just before arriving in Riyadh, Xi faced protests at home, the most serious challenge to his rule after winning a third five-year term as the leader of the Communist Party.

Prince Mohammed said that Saudi Arabia believes that hydrocarbon energy will remain an important resource to meet the world’s needs for decades to come.

Brent crude fell to around $76 a barrel on Friday from a June high of $122. Higher prices could lead princes to dream of overhauling the Saudi economy by building Neom, a futuristic $500 billion city on the Red Sea. But rising pump costs months ago further alienated President Joe Biden’s government from Riyadh, and the prince is likely to keep that in mind during Xi’s visit.

Xi praised the Gulf Cooperation Council countries Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for actively seeking political solutions to regional hotspot issues, and invited their astronauts to China’s new Tiangong space station.

Xi also said China plans to build a China-GCC joint nuclear safety demonstration center that will train 300 nuclear safety and technical personnel. The UAE already has the Barakah nuclear power plant, which was built with South Korea under a strict agreement that would not enrich uranium as a possible way to create nuclear weapons.

But perhaps most importantly for the Gulf states, Xi stressed that his country would continue to be a major buyer of their oil.

China will continue to import a large amount of crude oil from the GCC countries, expand the import of liquefied natural gas, and strengthen upstream oil and gas development engineering services and cooperation in storage, transportation and refining.

He also called on the GCC to use yuan to settle transactions.

Israel clashes with Palestine as Xi talks with Arab leaders, especially Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Xi said China remained committed to establishing an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 Israeli borders. (Associated Press)