Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran next week, AFP citing Beijing’s foreign ministry saying Friday, Jan. 15th as the world’s second-largest economy seeks greater diplomatic heft.
Spokesman Lu Kang said in a statement that Xi would visit the three Middle Eastern countries over five days from Tuesday.
The trip, Xi’s first to the region as president, comes amid mounting tensions over the war in Syria and after protesters ransacked and burned the Saudi Embassy in Tehran.
China depends on the Middle East for its oil supplies but has long taken a back seat in the region’s diplomatic and other disputes, only recently beginning to expand its role, especially in the Syrian crisis.
“China is the biggest importer of Middle Eastern oil,” Zhu Feng, professor at Peking University’s School of International Studies, told AFP. “So stability in the Middle East is what China would most like to see.”
Earlier this week a Chinese diplomat urged “calm and restraint” between Saudi Arabia and Iran, but Xi’s trip was most probably organized before the discord erupted between Iran and Saudi, Zhu said.
In the past month, Beijing has hosted high-level members from both the Syrian regime and its opposition.