Saudi king in China as everyone competes for limited oil supplies
Saudi Arabia-China, Politics, 1/23/2006

Saudi Arabia's king and the Chinese president, the two leaders of the largest oil exporting country in the world and the second ( China ) is large oil consumer country met on Sunday and held talks aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two countries in the field of energy.

The King's visit to China aims at consolidating economic relations also includes India and Pakistan.

The Saudi King discussed with the Chinese leaders questions relating to oil and the security of supplies in the first visit by a Saudi King to China since the foundation of the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Analysts said that China wants to maintain closer relations with this oil powerhouse but without defying Saudi Arabia's relations with the USA, the largest oil consuming country in the world and the largest importer of energy.

Abdullah's visit to China comes following the first official talks to be carried out by China with OPEC by the end of December, 2005, which raised the concern of certain politicians in the USA who fear the possibility of China gaining more access to oil of the Middle East.

The Saudi king is accompanied in his tour by a large delegation of businessmen and officials including the oil minister Ali al-Nueimi.

Internationally, China seeks to get the oil in order to feed its prosperous economy as it gives temps to likely partners including aid programs, and diplomatic support, in addition to providing a non American market for the countries that have conflicts with Washington, and have been dependent on the US market.

Chinese analysts said that while China was careful to maintain the stability of oil supplies, it does not have the resources or the will to defy the role of the USA in the Middle east. The USA is the greatest diplomatic alley for the Saudi Arabia outside the area and the greatest oil importer from it.

One Chinese energy expert who has links to the government said that China and the USA want oil flow to increase non- stop from the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia is considered the largest oil supplier for China during the first 11 months of 2005 as it supplied it with 17% of its imports, estimated at 440,000 barrels daily. However, this was less than one third of the Saudi oil exports to the USA during the same period which reached 1.43 million barrels.

Previous Stories:
  Saudi crown prince confers with Chinese president   (11/3/1999)
  Saudi Arabia welcomes Chinese president   (11/1/1999)
  Chinese president concludes visit to Algeria   (11/1/1999)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search