Category: Aggregated

Xi Jinping arrived today in Saudi Arabia for a two-day visit, before going on to Iran and Egypt, in a trip aimed at intervening against the British provocation of Sunni-Shia warfare. Before arriving in Riyadh, Xi published an article in the Saudi paper Alriyadh titled “Be Good Partners for Common Development.” The visit comes just days after China published its first “Arab Policy” document, laying out China’s intention to extend the Silk Road concept into Southwest Asia.

Xi’s article doesn’t mention Iran or the war danger, but focuses on China’s friendship and trade relations with the Saudis — China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner, and the Saudis are China’s largest source of oil imports.

“Over 2000 years ago,” he wrote, “numerous camel caravans from the two sides traveled along the ancient Silk Road. Diplomatic envoys from the Seljuk Empire visited China during the Tang Dynasty. Zheng He, China’s Muslim navigator in the Ming Dynasty, traveled to Jeddah, Mecca and Medina, and he described them as paradises where people enjoyed peace and harmony. The interactions and mutual learning between the Chinese and Islamic civilizations are an important part in the history of inter-civilization exchanges.”

Xi said the two nations should “bear in mind the strategic nature of China-Saudi Arabia relations…. Let us forge a win-win partnership of mutual benefit and common development,” emphasizing “aerospace, peaceful use of nuclear energy and renewable energy…. We hope and trust that Saudi Arabia, located at the west crossroads of the Belt and Road, will become an important participant of, contributor to and beneficiary of this initiative.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has begun a five-day swing through Saudi Arabi, Iran, and Egypt whose intention is to fully turn the tables on London’s policy of bloody sectarian warfare and terrorism in the region. His main instrument is China’s “win-win” policy of bringing the One Belt One Road program to the remotest corners of the planet. Xi stated the policy in his own words in an article published in Alriyadh on the eve of his Jan. 19 arrival there.

The Egypt leg of the trip will be particularly important, with a major policy speech to be delivered by Xi before the Arab League, headquartered in Cairo. Multi-billion-dollar deals and investment agreements are scheduled to be signed between China and Egypt, including a memorandum of understanding for Egypt to participate in China’s One Belt One Road economic cooperation policy. Other areas will include cooperation in infrastructure, nuclear power, so-called “new energy,” aviation, finance, and other sectors, according to the BRICS Post. Egypt’s ambassador to Russia, Magdy Amer, told Egypt’s MENA news service that during Xi’s visit deals will also be signed for $1.8 billion in loans: $1 billion to strengthen Egypt’s foreign reserves; $700 million to the National Bank of Egypt to finance projects; and $100 million to Banque Misr for small and medium-sized business projects.

A senior intelligence source in Washington, D.C., reported that China is in a unique position to defuse the British sectarian warfare plan in the area, having not “taken sides” between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the recent period. Egypt can also play a key role, the source said, since it has not sunk into the sectarian conflict affecting much of the region.