Saudi: Over 20 pacts worth SR110 billion set to be inked during Xi’s visit
Saudi Arabia and China are expected to sign more than 20 agreements, worth over SR110 billion, during the historic visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Saudi Arabia beginning on Wednesday.
A strategic partnership document between Saudi Arabia and China will also be inked in addition to the harmonization plan between the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
During the three-day official visit, three key summits will be held. They are the Saudi-Chinese summit; Riyadh Gulf-China Summit for Cooperation and Development; and Riyadh Arab-China Summit for Cooperation and Development.
More than 30 leaders of countries and international organizations will attend the summits, and this reflects the importance of these summits and the regional and international attention attached to them, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
The high-profile visit represents the keenness of the leaderships of the two countries to strengthen bilateral relations and their strategic partnership, as well as to invest their political and economic potential in serving their common interests. In recent years, a number of Saudi universities and schools started teaching the Chinese language, and the Arabic language is also being taught in 44 Chinese universities, and this is within the framework of cooperation in education between the two countries.
The visit will witness expanding the bilateral relations between the two countries in wide-ranging areas, particularly in cultural exchange. The Prince Mohammed bin Salman Award for Cultural Cooperation between Saudi Arabia and China will be launched during the visit. The award, announced by the Saudi Ministry of Culture in 201 9, reflects the Kingdom’s keenness to boost cultural and scientific relations. The award aims to promote the Arabic language and Arab and creative arts, as well as to promote mutual understanding and cultural exchange between Saudi and Chinese cultures, and serve the joint objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030 and China’s Belt and Road Initiative at the cultural level.
Xi’s visit comes at a time when the diplomatic relations between the two countries are witnessing distinguished and solid development at a steady pace towards greater cooperation and mutual understanding in various fields, in a way benefiting the two friendly countries and peoples.
In a new and unique scientific achievement at the level of the region and the Islamic world, Saudi Arabia joined China in a rare journey to explore the invisible side of the moon closely, as part of its growing interest in the exploration of space. This cooperation between Riyadh and Beijing was in the implementation of a memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries during the visit of King Salman to China on March 16, 2017, which established grounds for cooperation with the China National Space Administration to explore the moon.
The visit of the Chinese leader attained greater significance as Saudi Arabia is seeking to build a strategic partnership that supports trade and investment with the Chinese side, and makes the Kingdom China’s first reliable strategic partner in the region. The Kingdom accounted for more than 20.3 percent of China’s investment in the Arab world between 2005 and 2020 amounting to $196.9 billion, making it the biggest Arab country to receive Chinese investments during that period at around $39.9 billion.
Saudi Arabia and China are preparing to launch SABIC-Fujian Petrochemical Industrial Group Co. a joint venture involving a high-capacity cracking plant that produces a number of petrochemical products, with an estimated amount of SR22.5 billion, in which SABIC has a 51 percent stake.
