Saudi Arabia has decided to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a “dialogue partner”, state media reported on Wednesday, the latest movement toward closer political relations with China.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established in 2001 as a political, economic, and security organization to rival Western institutions. Besides China, its eight members include India, Pakistan, and Russia, as well as four central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
The cabinet approved the determination at a meeting on Tuesday chaired by King Salman, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. The movement would grant Riyadh the status of a dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, it said.
Other countries with either observer or dialogue partner status include Egypt, Iran, and Qatar.
Riyadh’s move to associate with the bloc comes less than three weeks after the unveiling of a landmark China-brokered reconciliation deal with Iran to restore full diplomatic ties that were severed seven years ago. Long bitter foes, Iran and especially Sunni Saudi Arabia have encountered a series of proxy disputes in the region, such as the prolonged fighting in Yemen.
Riyadh has said that while it had encountered in previous rounds of bilateral discussions with Tehran, the reconciliation process was jump-started by President Xi Jinping’s proposal the previous year to work as a “bridge” between the two Middle East heavyweights.
Xi’s role in the rapprochement raised eyebrows given Saudi Arabia’s traditionally near partnership with the United States, though that association has been under pressure recently because of conflicts over human rights and oil production.
Xi, in a phone call on Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, King Salman’s son, and the Gulf nation’s de facto ruler, praised what he called the easing of anxieties in the Middle East.
In his first comments on the matter to be made public since the Saudi-Iran deal was struck, Xi said the dialogue promoted by China would play a major role in strengthening regional unity and cooperation.
