Chinese President Xi Jinping paid state visits to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran from Jan. 19 to 23. Scholars said Xi’s first major diplomatic move this year would deepen traditional friendship, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation, promote regional peace and encourage the peaceful development of countries in the Middle East.

Time-tested friendship

The history of friendly exchanges between China and the Middle East extends back to the ancient Silk Road. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China and the three countries have lent each other support to withstand the tests posed by the changing international and regional landscape, scholars said.

Now China stands ready to cooperate with the three nations, which form a western hub of “the Belt and Road,” they said.

Yin Gang, a research fellow from the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), emphasized the geopolitical significance of the Middle East. The region lies at the juncture of Europe, Asia and Africa, and it connects the Indian Ocean with Atlantic. Furthermore, it is endowed with rich oil resources, and centuries-old civilizations call it home, Yin said.

Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt play an important role in the region, and the time-tested friendship between China and the countries of the Middle East continues to develop healthily, Yin said.

Advancement of relations

Wu Bingbing, director of the Institute of Arab-Islamic Culture at Peking University, said the current relations between China and countries in the Middle East have been “shifted to a higher gear,” which can be reflected in three aspects:

First, China has issued the first Arab policy paper, setting down policies toward the region in written form. Second, China has elevated the relationship with Saudi Arabia to a comprehensive strategic partnership, and its relations with Iran and Egypt will follow suit. Third, the areas of cooperation have been expanded to cover all dimensions, Wu said.

“Shifting the ties into a higher gear” means they have entered a stage of accelerated development, said Gao Shangtao, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at China Foreign Affairs University.

Under the “Belt and Road” framework, relations between China and Middle Eastern countries have advanced beyond the stage of loose organization and ushered in a brand new era of overall planning and top-level design, Gao said.

Specifically, China and Arab countries will join forces to establish a new cooperation pattern in the Middle East, he said. At the core is energy cooperation, which will be supplemented by infrastructure construction as well as trade and investment. And there will be cooperation breakthroughs in three areas of advanced technology—nuclear energy, satellites and new energy.

Gao said Saudi Arabia plans to build industrial parks, residential blocks and transportation infrastructure in its deserts, while Egypt and Iran have also unveiled plans regarding massive infrastructure construction. All of their plans align with China’s aim to promote infrastructure construction overseas.

“By entering the Middle East and actively becoming integrated into local economic development, Chinese enterprises will help China readjust and optimize its economic structure, give a boost to industrial upgrading in the Chinese economy and help Middle Eastern countries to improve their industrial systems and people’s quality of life,” Gao said.

“By entering the Middle East and actively becoming integrated into local economic development, Chinese enterprises will help China readjust and optimize its economic structure, give a boost to industrial upgrading in the Chinese economy and help Middle Eastern countries to improve their industrial systems and people’s quality of life,” Gao said.

Mutual benefit

Yang Guang, director of the Institute of Western Asian and African Studies at CASS, said China has great demand for oil, and there is still room for improvement in its refining technologies, petrochemical engineering, oil storage and transportation techniques. At the same time, in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran and Iraq, oil exploration and exploitation has been interrupted by years of war, and Chinese investment is needed to rebuild their damaged oil and gas facilities.

China and the Middle East are bringing into shape a “community of energy security,” Yang said, stressing that it is mutually beneficial to help Iran and other countries in the Middle East propel industrialization and to cooperate in labor and capacity.

In regional affairs, Chinese proposals and wisdom are also gaining popularity in the Middle East. Wang Yiwei, a senior research fellow from the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, attributed it to two reasons.

First, China encourages all countries to follow a developmental path suited to their own actual conditions. Second, China has enlarged the space for cooperation in terms of finance, personnel and international order, Wang said, adding that China’s approach had a positive impact during the negotiations over the nuclear issue of Iran.

“China participates in regional affairs and acts as a partner in developing regional relations, which is different from the US way of forming alliances,” Wu said. International relations were more security oriented, but the cooperative model within the framework of the “Belt and Road” is oriented toward diplomacy, with development at the core, he said.

Gao said that the international cooperation model within the “Belt and Road” framework has incorporated the interests of Middle Eastern countries, aiming to realize joint development and build a community of shared fate together.

Yang Guang, director of the Institute of Western Asian and African Studies at CASS, said China has great demand for oil, and there is still room for improvement in its refining technologies, petrochemical engineering, oil storage and transportation techniques. At the same time, in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran and Iraq, oil exploration and exploitation has been interrupted by years of war, and Chinese investment is needed to rebuild their damaged oil and gas facilities.

China and the Middle East are bringing into shape a “community of energy security,” Yang said, stressing that it is mutually beneficial to help Iran and other countries in the Middle East propel industrialization and to cooperate in labor and capacity.

In regional affairs, Chinese proposals and wisdom are also gaining popularity in the Middle East. Wang Yiwei, a senior research fellow from the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, attributed it to two reasons.

First, China encourages all countries to follow a developmental path suited to their own actual conditions. Second, China has enlarged the space for cooperation in terms of finance, personnel and international order, Wang said, adding that China’s approach had a positive impact during the negotiations over the nuclear issue of Iran.

“China participates in regional affairs and acts as a partner in developing regional relations, which is different from the US way of forming alliances,” Wu said. International relations were more security oriented, but the cooperative model within the framework of the “Belt and Road” is oriented toward diplomacy, with development at the core, he said.

Gao said that the international cooperation model within the “Belt and Road” framework has incorporated the interests of Middle Eastern countries, aiming to realize joint development and build a community of shared fate together.