DPA
CAIRO
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday landed in Riyadh, starting an official visit to oil-rich Saudi Arabia where he plans to meet Saudi, Gulf and Arab leaders.
Welcoming him at the King Khalid airport in Riyadh were Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister and the Riyadh governor, the monarchy’s official news agency SPA reported.
During his three-day visit, Xi will reportedly hold meetings from Thursday onwards with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, as well as a summit with Gulf and Arab leaders.
Saudi Arabia and China are also expected to sign agreements worth over 110bn Saudi riyals ($29.3bn) during Xi’s "historic” visit, the Saudi Arabian English-language newspaper, Saudi Gazette reported.
Xi’s trip comes around five months after US President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia, and told Arab leaders that Washington "will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran.” But in recent months, ties between Saudi Arabia and its traditional ally, the US, have strained over energy supplies.
Saudi Arabia drew heavy criticism from the US after the Riyadh-led oil cartel OPEC+, which comprises Russia, announced in October it was cutting the crude output by 2 million barrels per day.
Washington saw the step as tilting towards Russia waging a months-long war in Ukraine.In response to the US criticism, Saudi officials said the production cut was purely economic.
The Gulf countries have enhanced their economic, political, and security relations with China over the years. For Saudi Arabia, which is the world’s top oil exporter, China is currently an important trading partner and its largest customer for crude.