Saudi-Iran Rapprochement & China’s Diplomatic Triumph

The famous statement that “the 21st century belongs to China” is consistently being proven since the emergence of China as a great power, transforming the US-led international order, via its geoeconomic and geostrategic influence. China’s vision of geoeconomics i.e., a mix of strategic design, investment, soft power portrayal, mutual benefit, and win-win cooperation, is overarching and more pragmatic than the geopolitical influence of the United States. These characteristics have also proved crucial to China’s enhancement of soft power politics and have attracted the attention of most countries across the globe.

Recently, the oil-rich Middle East is becoming a region of great importance for China, and many Gulf countries are eager for China to take on a more proactive political role to offset the US hegemony in the region which PRC previously tried to avoid. However, leaving many spectators in awe, Beijing has for the very first time taken on a direct political role to broker the Saudi-Iran deal on March 10 in Beijing, an agreement to rejuvenate the long-strained relationship between the two regional actors of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. This development has accounted PRC to be in a leading position in Middle Eastern politics, thereby coupling the country’s diplomatic clout with its economic supremacy.

China views both Saudi Arabia and Iran, as of utmost importance to its energy security and their political, military, and economic influence make them vital allies for Beijing. China is the largest export market for Saudi Arabia’s oil with a bilateral trade of $87.3 billion in 2021. On the other hand, the bilateral trade between Iran and China in the same year was $16 billion. China has planned out a modular balancing act and conferred both Riyadh and Tehran with the status of comprehensive strategic partners which is the ultimate of partnership diplomacy of China in the Middle East.

Nevertheless, the rejuvenation of Saudi-Iran ties by China rightly fits its grand strategy and is a remarkable demonstration of a grandiose diplomatic success by China. Given the present Middle Eastern dynamics, it is highly evident that China is upending the US influence in the Gulf and beyond, and the subsequent repercussions for regional and global order will resonate for years to come.