What’s new: China and Saudi Arabia signed investment deals worth about $50 billion during a summit attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping last week in Riyadh, Bloomberg reported.
The pacts included both the private and the public sectors, the news outlet reported, citing Saudi Arabia’s Investment Minister Khalid A. Al-Falih.
Xi attended the first China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit from Dec. 7 to 10 during his state visit to Saudi Arabia. According to a statement, Saudi and Chinese companies signed more than 30 agreements covering green energy, logistics, cloud computing and housing.
The context: China elevated its relations with Saudi Arabia to a comprehensive strategic partnership during Xi’s visit. The Chinese leader said he took the development of China’s relations with Saudi Arabia as “a priority in its overall foreign relations, in particular its diplomacy in the Middle East.”
In a speech to the GCC summit Friday, Xi said China would work with Gulf nations to start yuan settlements of oil and gas trades in the next three to five years.
Saudi Arabia has long been the largest crude oil supplier to China. The visit to the key energy partner came at a time when U.S. and Saudi ties have soured after a coalition of oil producing countries led by Russia and Saudi Arabia announced Oct. 5 that they would cut output, threatening to push global oil prices higher.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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