Saudi Arabia Inches Closer To Join China-Led Security Bloc Amid US Concerns

Saudi Arabia has inched closer to joining a China-led Asian economic and security bloc despite US security concerns, the media has reported.

Amid US’ increasing rivalry with China and Russia in a polarised world, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations are choosing to diversify their global partnerships.

Source : Getty

Saudi Arabia has inched closer to joining a China-led Asian economic and security bloc despite US security concerns, the media has reported. According to state-owned Saudi Press Agency, the Saudi cabinet has approved a memorandum awarding Riyadh the status of dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which is a political, security and trade alliance that lists China, India, Russia, Pakistan and four other central Asian nations as full members, CNBC reported.

Formed in 2001 by Russia, China and former Soviet states in Central Asia, the SCO is a political and security union of countries which has been expanded to include India and Pakistan, with a view to playing a bigger role as counterweight to Western influence in the region, says a report by news agency Reuters.

According to reports, amid US’ increasing rivalry with China and Russia in a polarised world, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations are choosing to diversify their global partnerships.

“The traditional monogamous relationship with the US is now over,” Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst and writer was quoted as saying by CNN.

“And we have gone into a more open relationship; strong with the US but equally strong with China, India, (the) UK, France and others.”

Joining the SCO was discussed during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Saudi Arabia last December, sources were quoted as saying by Reuters. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have voiced concern about what they see as a withdrawal from the region by main security guarantor the US and have moved to diversify partners. Washington says it will stay an active partner in the region.

Meanwhile, Veteran US journalist and geopolitical commentator Fareed Zakaria said that sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine combined with Washington’s increasingly confrontational approach to China have created a perfect storm in which both Russia and China are accelerating efforts to diversify away from the dollar. "Their central banks are keeping less of their reserves in dollars, and most trade between them is being settled in the Yuan. They are also, as Putin noted, making efforts to get other countries to follow suit," he mentioned.