Ashraf AboArafe
We are on the cusp of the launch of the first Arab-Chinese summit in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in early December 2022, which will be a major positive turning point in Arab-Chinese relations on the one hand, and on the other hand, it will be a remarkable negative turning point in Arab relations with the Americans and the West.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to use his visit to Saudi Arabia to boost relations given his last visit in January 2016. Saudi Arabia was China’s largest foreign oil exporter before Russia in October, according to customs data from the world’s largest economy.
Reports emerged in March that China and Saudi Arabia were in talks again to settle oil deals in yuan, a topic the two countries had discussed six years ago. Such a change would undermine the dollar, which has long been the default currency for pricing energy contracts around the world, raising the green currency’s importance and strengthening Washington’s geopolitical clout. However, currency analysts said at the time that a deal between Beijing and Riyadh was likely to be a long way off.
In April, the Chinese president told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a phone call that Beijing “gives priority” to deepening ties with Riyadh, and wants “high-level” cooperation in energy, trade and high-tech industries.
To challenge the United States and expand economic opportunities, Beijing seeks to deepen relations with countries in the Middle East. Last year, Beijing signed a 25-year cooperation framework with Iran despite sanctions imposed on it by Washington over its nuclear program.
Non can disagree that the Arab-Chinese summit represents a milestone in the strategic partnership between the Arab countries and China. This was confirmed by the Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League, Khalil Al-Thawadi, Head of Arab Affairs and National Security and Supervisor of the International Political Affairs Sector at the League, during the opening of the Third Sino-Arab Forum for Reform and Development, which was held via the digital platform with the Chinese side.
Al-Thawadi praised the efforts made by Chinese diplomacy to support Arab concerns and find peaceful solutions to the existing crises in the region, stressing the League’s keenness to strengthen its extensive relations with China.
He called for concerted international and regional efforts to find political solutions to these crises and regional issues in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions and relevant charters and references, to enhance opportunities for a political solution, and to reject regional interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries.
Earlier this year, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Zhai Jun, Ambassador and Special Envoy of the Chinese government to the Middle East, discussed various issues including cooperation between the Arab world and China.
Aboul Gheit said he appreciates China’s support for Arab countries in providing vaccines and support during the COVID-19 pandemic. This reflects the level of “friendship and cooperation” between the two sides.
The source said that Aboul Gheit thanked China for its support for the League of Arab States in international forums and the Security Council, including the Palestinian cause. He also praised China for its support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, in light of the agency’s financial hardship.
The Arab-Chinese Summit aims at:
building consensus around development and promoting strategic synergies; Pursuing mutual benefit and win-win results, deepening pragmatic cooperation; adhering to an innovation-driven approach and promoting new development momentum; Jointly promote green development, explore sustainable development paths, implement the global development guide with practical measures, and build a Chinese-Arab community with a shared future in the new era.
Democracy and human rights are considered among the common values of all mankind, and are not patents of individual countries, and are not an exclusive right of the United States and Western countries, pointing out that the Shura system in the Islamic world and popular democracy with all its operations in China are both among the precious wealth of global political civilization, and the Arabs agree The Chinese believe that the right to survival and the right to development are at the forefront of human rights for developing countries.
There is no doubt that the unilateral sanctions, which China describes as “arbitrary”, imposed on Russia, led to an imbalance between supply and demand in the market, high oil and grain prices, and turmoil in financial markets, and sharply increased pressure on development and people’s livelihood in all countries of the world.
With regard to the Taiwan issue, China believes that the United States of America has recently put forward many fallacies about the issue of Taiwan, which have no basis at all, with the aim of misleading public opinion and “containing China by exploiting Taiwan” and suppressing and restricting China’s development and renaissance, pointing out that the claim of the United States By supporting Taiwan’s participation in international organizations in a “meaningful manner”, it aims by its nature to expand the international space for Taiwan, and comes as another type of support for Taiwan’s independence, stressing that the Chinese side adheres to only one principle in this issue, namely the one-China principle, as nearly 90 countries have expressed Expressed its support for the one-China principle, which is the prevailing opinion in the international community.
Finally, I believe that the Arab-Chinese summit will shape a new world towards the common destiny of both China and the Arabs.
