Buying the support of a third of humanity

Saudi Arabia Woos China and India:

“In January 2006, Saudi king Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud visited China and India, a trip some commentators labeled “a strategic shift” in Saudi foreign policy and reflective of “a new era” for the kingdom. It was King Abdullah’s first trip outside the Middle East since taking the throne in August 2005, and it was also the first trip by a Saudi ruler to China since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1990.

“Abdullah’s travel was significant. His reception suggested both Chinese and Indian recognition of the House of Saud’s role in regulating global oil prices and the impact that Saudi oil policy has not only on Western economies but on the Chinese and Indian economies as well. Riyadh’s relations with Beijing and Delhi are not shaped by energy alone, however. There is a major political component to Saudi strategic thinking. The royal family wishes to engage China and India in order to create a political alternative to its relationship with the United States. Saudi thinkers may believe that an Asian alternative will make the kingdom less susceptible to Western pressure on such issues as democratization and terror financing. [...]

“Many Saudi officials, annoyed with U.S. pressure to cease funding Islamist and terrorist groups, find Beijing’s no-questions-asked policies attractive.” 

Read the whole thing.

Also read:

The Sino-Saudi Connection

Fueling the dragon: China’s race into the oil market

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