WASHINGTON — 

After nearly two years of preparation, the first summit between China and the League of Arab States will be held in Saudi Arabia. China claims that this summit will become an important milestone in the history of Sino-Arab relations.

Reuters and the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the summit is expected to be held on December 9. During the summit, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Saudi Arabia. It is a sensitive period when the relationship between the two countries has fallen into a trough due to energy supply disputes.

Although relevant officials have revealed to the media that Xi Jinping will set off for a visit to the Middle East this month, it is not yet clear whether he will not make this trip for any reason, and Chinese and Saudi officials have not made a final official announcement.

Arab diplomats told Reuters that Saudi Arabia has sent invitations to the Middle East and North African leaders for the China-Arab gathering, and many Arab leaders are expected to attend.

“We may see a lot of them (Middle East countries) show up at this summit and openly express their friendship with China.” Grant Rumley (Grant Rumley), a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said.

Energy, infrastructure, ideology, are China and the Middle East similar?

In recent years, with the rapid rise of China, its economic and diplomatic influence in the Middle East has also increased significantly. When the United States seems to be fading out of the Middle East and drifting away from traditional partners such as Saudi Arabia, this oil-rich region countries have increasingly close relations with China.

At present, China has become the largest trading partner of the Arab countries and the largest foreign investor. Last year, the bilateral trade volume between the Arab world and China reached more than 300 billion US dollars, an increase of more than one third compared with the previous year. In addition, there are 20 A Middle Eastern country signed a "Belt and Road" cooperation document with China.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a report on China-Arab cooperation on Thursday (December 1), saying that China has established 12 pairs of strategic partnerships with Arab countries at the bilateral level. In addition, China also intends to take the convening of the first China-Arab summit as an opportunity , and build what China calls the "China-Arab Community of Shared Future" with Arab countries.

"So far, China has been quite successful in developing relations with divided parties in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran." Gaidalia, director of the Asia Policy Program at the Abba Eban Institute of International Diplomacy at Israel's Rehman University Gedaliah Afterman said.

The former diplomat at the Australian embassy in Beijing said that the two sides are expected to seek more economic and trade cooperation agreements at the China-Arab States summit, including the possible signing of a free trade agreement between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. "This summit, if it is held at all, is unique because for the first time the two sides view their relationship as strategic," he said in an email to VOA.

For China, while oil and gas supplies are still important, the opportunities offered by the GCC countries are much greater, especially in areas such as infrastructure development, he said. And for the GCC countries, China in many ways fits right in with their vision for the future: “Unlike any other player, China has the unique ability to act as a long-term partner, buying their oil, building their cities, providing the technologies that make them smart and helping them diversify their economies to green energy."

John Calabrese, a professor at American University and director of the Middle East-Asia Program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, a think tank, said there was also ideological sympathy. There is no doubt that China's form of government is of course different from the Gulf states' monarchies, but "broadly speaking, these governments have broadly similar authoritarian characteristics," he said.

He told VOA: "And, from a Western perspective on the human rights record and the political process, a common position shared by China and most Middle Eastern countries and governments is to counter Western criticism and public condemnation of the human rights record .”

The way to balance competition and cooperation among great powers

The strong presence of the United States in the Middle East can be traced back to World War II. At that time, President Roosevelt established close partnerships with major powers such as Saudi Arabia. Since then, the Middle East has been one of the regions where the United States has invested the most strategic resources for more than 70 years. The United States has also consistently held a dominant position in the region that is second to none. However, with the rapid rise of China and the gradual shift of the global economic center of gravity to the Asia-Pacific region, the United States has adjusted its national strategy since the Obama administration, shifting the focus of its security strategy from counter-terrorism to the Asia-Pacific region.

Relations between Washington and some longtime allies have been at their lowest point in recent years over oil production and its stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In October of this year, OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, ignored the warnings of the Biden administration and insisted on cutting production to increase global oil prices. This was considered to have actually funded Russia's war in Ukraine and exacerbated inflation. The international organization composed of major oil-producing countries includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and other America's most staunch allies in the Middle East. Biden and many U.S. lawmakers have recently separately warned that the U.S. may reconsider U.S.-Saudi security relations if Riyadh does not cooperate.