BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s commerce minister urged closer ties in new energy and capital markets in talks with Saudi Arabia’s visiting investment minister, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday, as Beijing seeks Riyadh’s backing for a Gulf trade deal.
Beijing is pursuing closer commercial ties with the Gulf states as it seeks a way out of a two-front trade war with the United States and European Union, which have imposed tariffs on Chinese goods over concerns about their low cost and potential to flood their respective markets.
At the meeting in Beijing on Tuesday, China’s Wang Wentao discussed with Saudi’s Khalid Al-Falih the prospect of aligning Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s “Vision 2030”.
The Saudi plan is a set of economic and social policies aimed at reducing the kingdom’s dependence on oil.
Negotiations between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council, an Arab trade bloc, have stalled over Saudi concerns that cheap Chinese imports could hinder the kingdom’s plans to become an industrial powerhouse, Reuters reported in May last year.
Although all six GCC members have engaged with the Belt and Road Initiative, none of the Gulf heads of state attended a 2023 summit in the Chinese capital marking its tenth anniversary, which analysts say Beijing viewed as a snub.
Wang said he also saw potential to “expand bilateral trade volumes, elevate the level of two-way investment cooperation, and broaden collaboration in areas such as new energy, industrial supply chains and capital markets,” Wednesday’s statement said.
It did not mention the China-GCC trade deal.
Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries to maintain a trade surplus with China
China sold over $50 billion worth of goods to Saudi Arabia last year, according to Chinese customs data, with smartphones, solar panels and saloon cars among its top exports.
Saudi Arabia’s exports to China were worth $57 billion in 2024, the data shows, over 80% of which was oil.
(Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Barbara Lewis)
