What’s at Play in Xi Jinping’s Upcoming Visit to Saudi Arabia?

File image of Chinese President Xi Jinping, via AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping will reportedly travel to Saudi Arabia this week for a state meeting and to attend the inaugural China-Arab Summit. This is a particularly important visit as Xi returns to in-person diplomacy because Saudi-U.S. relations are quite frosty amid wrangles over oil prices in relation to the Ukraine crisis.

Saudi Arabia has expressed interest in upgrading its membership in the Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization to observer status, a step towards full membership. The summits are important occasions for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to assert his leadership and for China to cement its growing prominence in the Middle East amid perceptions of a U.S. pivot away from the region.

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by Cobus van Staden

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