Saudi Arabia has agreed to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a”dialogue partner”, state media reported on Wednesday, the latestindication of closer political ties with China.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established in 2001 as apolitical, economic and security organisation to rival Western institutions.
Besides China, its eight members include India, Pakistan and Russia, aswell as four central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistanand Tajikistan.
The cabinet approved the decision at a meeting on Tuesday chaired by KingSalman, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
The move would grant Riyadh “the status of a dialogue partner in theShanghai Cooperation Organization”, it said.
Other countries with either observer or dialogue partner status includeEgypt, Iran and Qatar.
Riyadh’s move to partner with the bloc comes less than three weeks afterthe unveiling of a landmark China-brokered reconciliation deal with Iran torestore full diplomatic relations that were severed seven years ago.
Read Top Stories
Long bitter rivals, Shiite-majority Iran and mainly Sunni Saudi Arabia haveengaged in a series of proxy conflicts in the region, such as theprotracted fighting in Yemen.
Riyadh has said that while it had engaged in previous rounds of bilateraltalks with Tehran, the reconciliation process was jump-started by PresidentXi Jinping’s offer last year to serve as a “bridge” between the two MiddleEast heavyweights.
Xi’s role in the rapprochement raised eyebrows given Saudi Arabia’straditionally close partnership with Washington, though that relationshiphas been under strain recently because of disputes over human rights andoil production.
Xi, in a phone call on Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,King Salman’s son and the Gulf nation’s de facto ruler, lauded what hecalled the easing of tensions in the Middle East.
In his first comments on the matter to be made public since the Saudi-Irandeal was struck, Xi said the dialogue promoted by China would “play a majorrole in strengthening regional unity and cooperation”.