Saudi Arabia Decides to Join Shanghai Cooperation Organization... Expanding China's Influence in the Middle East

US Middle East Exit and Ukraine War Impact
China's Increased Influence with Growing Oil Import Share

Saudi Arabia has announced that it has become a 'Dialogue Partner' country of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), an economic and security forum led by China, which is expected to further solidify China's position in the Middle East. Following the recent normalization of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, brokered in China, Saudi Arabia's de facto entry into the SCO is also expected to increase friction with the United States.

On the 10th, Wang Yi, Director of the General Office of the Communist Party Central Foreign Affairs Commission (center), participated in the Saudi-Iran mediation talks in Beijing with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Musaad bin Mohammed Al-Aiban (left) and Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Council. Photo by Reuters·Yonhap News Agency

According to CNBC on the 29th (local time), the Saudi government announced through the state media SPA the day before that "Saudi Arabia has agreed to become a Dialogue Partner country of the SCO." The SCO, an economic and security forum led by China, currently has nine full member countries including Russia and India, and three observer countries including Belarus.

Dialogue Partner countries are not full members but are cooperation partners of the SCO. Many Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey, Egypt, and Qatar, as well as Central Asian oil-producing countries, have already joined as Dialogue Partners. It is known that this matter has been actively discussed since Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Saudi Arabia in December last year.

In particular, this announcement came just three weeks after China announced its mediation of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which is interpreted as an indicator that China's position in the Middle East is significantly strengthening. If Saudi Arabia's close ties with China deepen further, there is also a possibility of becoming a full member. This reflects the situation where China's influence is gradually increasing amid the U.S. exit strategy from the Middle East and the weakening of Russia's influence in the Middle East following the Ukraine war.

The growing presence of China in the Middle East is largely attributed to China's rising economic status as the largest consumer of Middle Eastern oil. As of 2021, the trade volume between Saudi Arabia and China was $87.3 billion (approximately 114 trillion KRW), with China already emerging as Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner. The amount of oil China imports annually from Saudi Arabia accounts for more than 25% of Saudi Arabia's total oil production, making it the largest single-country importer.

The U.S. government has not yet expressed any particular stance on this move. CNBC reported, "We requested a comment from the White House regarding Saudi Arabia obtaining the new Dialogue Partner status in the SCO, but there was no response."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.