Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi kicked off a week-long six-nation tour of the Persian Gulf and Turkey on Wednesday with a stop in Riyadh, where he met with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
Relations between the two countries have warmed considerably in recent years as China has shifted large portions of oil buying from Africa to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states. Saudi Arabia, in fact, is now China’s largest oil supplier and was consistently among the top three suppliers last year.