Saudi Arabia’s balanced foreign policy

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia and his participation in three summits with leaders from the Kingdom, Gulf states, and the Arab world showed the importance of such trips in improving strategic international relations.

Saudi Arabia has made clear its desire to pursue a balanced foreign policy that seeks stability, order, and equilibrium in its many commitments to global politics.

While frustrations remain over the relationship between US President Joe Biden’s administration and China, Saudi diplomacy does not involve interference in the disputes of other nations.

The Kingdom has a strong and well-articulated national interest based on the security and protection of the country and the Gulf region.

Saudi Arabia continues to exercise restraint toward conflicts or strife in the Middle East and internationally, and China too avoids direct involvement in Middle Eastern war zones.

As China’s strength and influence around the world grows its tactical power will inevitably increase as well, but not exclusively toward the US. China has proven that nationalism is more of a sturdy basis of loyalty to a country than communism.

Saudi Arabia’s relationship with America is normal and strong in many domains. The US and the Kingdom are engaged in numerous strategic partnerships, such as working to contain Iran’s dangerous, reckless, and ruinous meddling in the internal and domestic affairs of many countries.

The Saudi leadership also clearly understands the distribution of power on a global scale. China is supremely an economic giant. Therefore, the central reality of world politics motivates the Kingdom to weave a network of economic and technological ties with Beijing to bring economic development and prosperity to all the nations in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia is confident in its foreign policy and its growing ties with China have gradually strengthened over many decades.

The Kingdom’s power is rising in world politics and a successful Saudi effort to grow its relations with countries such as China will only enhance the core values it embraces.

The foreign policy of Saudi Arabia strives to synthesize power with principles. Foreign policy is the face a nation wears to the world. The manner in which Saudi Arabia practices foreign policy is greatly affected by the national peculiarities of other countries, such as China.

China was a poor and isolated country revered by Western imperialism and civil wars. But it started opening up to the world and wants to be recognized as a world power.

World economics have been thrown off balance in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and Saudi Arabia is working with China on ways to bring about a global economic revival.

In recent years, strong Chinese and Saudi economic performances in overall production and employment have been accompanied by further requirements to balance their trade with many other nations.

The reasons for focusing on China’s merchandise trade are not merely a parochial approach by Saudi Arabia. By diversifying its portfolio of economic cooperation and interests with China, Riyadh is making it possible for many nations to trade and do business with China without deep trade deficits.

Saudi Arabia is helping many countries remove the strains that often characterize their political and economic relations with China. As former US President Richard Nixon wrote in the magazine Foreign Affairs in 1969, “there is no place on this small planet for 1 billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation.” He was referring to China.

Saudi Arabia is assisting China further in how to be integrated beneficially into the world economy.

Playing the China card was an old Cold War expression aimed at exploiting the Chinese-Soviet rift to widen divisions inside the Communist bloc. Saudi Arabia does not play that card, because it is firm in its belief that China’s growing relations in the Middle East will positively impact the geopolitics of that vital part of the world. Consequently, China can boost the economic transformation of the Middle East to structure a hopeful future.

Saudi Chinese cooperation offers much comfort to a world torn by wars, epidemics, and many human-made calamities.

The three summits held in Saudi Arabia influenced operations. They have emerged as wise councils among China and Arabs to debate and deliberate how to cultivate stronger political and economic ties. There is a trust between Saudi Arabia and China.

In the end, both China and Saudi Arabia will be hailed as the nations stressing their prestige and helping other countries become leaders on their own and in the execution of their foreign policies.