Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a three-day visit to Saudi Arabiathis week, meeting the king and de facto ruler of the world’s biggest oilexporter, Saudi state media reported on Tuesday.
Xi, head of the world’s number-two economy, will also attend a summit withrulers from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and talks with leadersfrom elsewhere in the Middle East, strengthening China’s growing ties withthe region.
The Chinese leader will arrive on Wednesday, the official *Saudi PressAgency* said, for only his third trip abroad since the coronavirus pandemicbegan and his first to Saudi Arabia since 2016.
His bilateral summit, chaired by King Salman and attended by Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, comes after Xi secured ahistoric third term in November.
Xi’s visit reflects “much deeper relations developed in recent years”between the two countries, said Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to thegovernment.
“As the largest importer of Saudi oil, China is a critically importantpartner and military relations have been developing strongly,” he said,adding that he expected “a number of agreements to be signed”.
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The visit also coincides with heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia andthe United States over issues ranging from energy policy to regionalsecurity and human rights.
The latest blow to that decades-old partnership came in October when theOPEC+ oil bloc agreed to cut production by two million barrels a day, amove the White House said amounted to “aligning with Russia” on the war inUkraine.
On Sunday, OPEC+ opted to keep those cuts in place.
Shihabi said the timing was “a coincidence and not directed at the US”.
