Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Saudi Arabia amid frayed relations with the US. Jinping is set to reach the kingdom on Thursday. The trip will include a China-Arab summit in which 14 Arab heads of states are expected to attend, CNN reported. A GCC conference is also expected to take place.
An official announcement of the visit hasn't been made. Rumours had been circulating about a Chinese presidential visit to Saudi have been circulating for months. Saudi is the US' biggest Middle Eastern Ally.
In July, when President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia, the other strained relations between the nations appeared to the thawing. After Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in July 2018, the US demanded answers and vowed to make the country a pariah. Biden, however, visited the kingdom to discuss oil production amid the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. The former was keen to stop buying power and fuel from Russia.
Relations between China and the US, in the meantime, have been tense over Taiwan and the former's activities in the South China Sea. The US has repeatedly vowed that it would aid Taiwan should Chin attack. China considers the island nation to be under its rule. Both China and Saudi Arabia Both have refrained from endorsing sanctions on Russia.
