Saudi Arabia's ties to China will probably grow, Prince Faisal bin Farhan says

China is an important partner for the kingdom and most countries in the region, kingdom's Foreign Minister says

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan speaks at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Reuters

China's relationship with Saudi Arabia and other regional countries will probably continue to grow, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said on Thursday.

“China is an important partner for the kingdom and most countries in the region,” Prince Faisal said at a press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on a two-day visit to the country.

“That partnership has given us and China significant benefits and that co-operation is likely to grow just because of China's economic impact on the region.”

Prince Faisal added that Riyadh values its relationship with both China and the US, and said ties to Washington remain “robust and strong”, especially in areas such as defence co-operation.

China is Saudi Arabia’s biggest trading partner and recently played a pivotal role in helping the kingdom and Iran repair their fractured relationship. During these negotiations, the US looked on from afar.

The Saudi Foreign Minister said he did not ascribe to any “zero-sum game” when it came to international relations.

“I think we are all capable of having multiple partnerships and multiple engagements, and the US does the same in many instances,” Prince Faisal said.

Mr Blinken said the US is “not asking anyone to choose between the United States and China”.

Antony Blinken in Saudi Arabia – in pictures

“We're simply trying to demonstrate the benefits of our partnership and the affirmative agenda that we bring,” he said.

Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia have been tense under President Joe Biden's administration, with many analysts criticising the US for turning away from the Middle East.

“We've seen the Saudis drifting to closer relations with China,” Robert Jordan, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia who served under President George W Bush, told The National.

“We've seen Opec+ curtailing production and we've seen what appears to be an uncomfortable feeling from the Saudis with regard to the relationship with the United States.”

Mr Blinken’s trip comes on the heels of another high-level visit by White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in May.

The visits are part of a recent push by the Biden administration to improve relations with Saudi Arabia and the wider region.

“It's long overdue,” Mr Jordan said. “Several administrations, notably the current one, have taken the Saudi relationship for granted and if anything have appeared to downgrade it for the first two years of the Biden administration.”

Mr Jordan said Mr Blinken’s trip was a “reset” and an important step in “reaffirming the relationship”.

But what exactly the trip achieved remains to be seen.

Antony Blinken meets Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan – video

“The trip doesn't appear to have achieved any major breakthroughs in US-Saudi relations and certainly hasn't arrested Riyadh’s drift from Washington's orbit,” Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East and North African analyst at the Rane Network, told The National.

“Instead, both this trip and Sullivan's last month were focused on maintaining the status quo and trying to make incremental progress towards mutual policy objectives.”

On the eve of his trip, Mr Blinken told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that Washington was committed to promoting “normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia”.

Mr Bohl does not believe Washington made any real progress towards normalisation on this trip.

“Saudi Arabia has made it clear that they want the United States to draw much closer to Saudi Arabia in particular on its security and civilian nuclear front,” Mr Bohl said.

“Unless a US official is visiting and offering a deeper security guarantee to Saudi Arabia or co-ordination to help Saudi Arabia develop a civilian nuclear programme, then Israeli normalisation looks like it will be stalled.”

Prince Farhan said that while normalisation was in the “interest of the region”, Saudi Arabia was only interested in pursuing it if a “pathway to peace for the Palestinian people” was achieved.