Saudi Unveils Five-Year Plan for Defense Cooperation with China

ARABIAN DEFENSE -- On November 7, 2016, Saudi Arabia’s ruling monarch King Salman bin Abdulaziz met with Meng Jianzhu, a special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Riyadh. After a series of talk between Chinese officials and senior members of the Saudi royal family, the Saudi government unveiled a five-year plan for Saudi Arabia-China security cooperation during Meng’s visit.

This plan would include counterterrorism cooperation and joint military drills, cementing Saudi Arabia’s status as a vital Chinese ally in the Middle East.

Even though China has emerged as Saudi Arabia’s leading economic partner in recent years, the transition toward a full-fledged defensive partnership is a new, largely unforeseen development.

In contrast to the multibillion dollar annual arms contracts binding Saudi Arabia to the United States, China only sold $700 million in arms to Riyadh from 2008-2011. Low levels of Riyadh-Beijing security cooperation were attributed to China’s long-standing friendship with Iran, disagreements over Bashar al-Assad’s future in Syria and long-standing Chinese disdain for Saudi Arabia’s sponsorship of Islamist networks.

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Arabian Defense, an aggregator for Arabian defense news.