Reporting in recent weeks has documented the feud that has developed between the White House of President Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia.
Now, it appears that Saudi Arabia is planning to meet with America’s biggest enemy, Xi Jinping, the Chinese dictator, Breitbart News reports.
It’s happening
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan revealed the planned meetup between Saudi Arabia and China on Thursday during a meetup with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Wang Yi and Faisal bin Farhan met under the China-Saudi Arabia high-level joint committee.
Faisal bin Farhan said:
Our meeting today comes at an important time, as it precedes the expected visit of the Chinese president to the kingdom, and before the Saudi-Chinese summit, the Gulf-Chinese summit, and the Arab-Chinese summit, which the Kingdom views with great interest and is working to finalise all arrangements for it, for its success. The historical and solid relationship between our two countries is based on common principles and mutual respect, which contributed to the consolidation of international peace and stability.
China, for its part, did not directly confirm the planned meetup between Xi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
China, however, through the Xinhua news agency, did say, “China attaches great importance to the development of China-Saudi Arabia relations and puts Saudi Arabia at a priority position in China’s overall diplomacy, its diplomacy with the Middle East region in particular.”
Background
This relationship between Saudi Arabia and China is not that surprising. It has been developing for some time. But, context is important here.
Saudi Arabia is cozying up to China after a fallout with the Biden administration.
Earlier this year, amid the energy crisis, Biden took a trip to Saudi Arabia to urge the country to up its oil production. But, Biden’s plan hasn’t worked out.
Recently, OPEC+ announced that it will decrease oil production by two million barrels per day. This has led to a back-and-forth feud between the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia.
In the process, it appears that Biden and his administration have practically been driving Saudi Arabia to China. It’s another foreign affairs failure for Biden.