How GCC, China can strengthen their trade relations

How GCC, China can strengthen their trade relations

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RIYADH: As of 2020, China replaced the EU as the Gulf Cooperation Council’s largest trading partner. Saudi Arabia was China’s top supplier of crude oil in 2021. Its neighbor, the UAE, has become an important platform for re-exporting Chinese goods into the region and Africa.

Additionally, Qatar has become an essential natural gas supplier to China.

“There is a very strong China moment in the GCC that has been built over the past 15 years of (trade) relations,” said Mohammed Al-Sudairi, head of the Asian Studies Program at King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, in an interview with Arab News.

He pointed out that the general assessment across the GCC is that relations with China are much more important than before, “as it has become a top partner at the level of the bloc.”

China is also playing a key role in the development of the region’s non-oil sectors, according to Robert Mogielnicki, asenior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

The researcher believes that strong complementarities exist between China and the GCC across many sectors. These include tourism, telecommunications, artificial intelligence, smart cities, and renewables, among other technology-driven industries.

Reciprocity, mutual understanding and predictability are the most important aspects of