As US watches, China and Saudi Arabia shy away from defense deals during Xi's visit
Pentagon officials are closely watching what deals result from the Chinese president's meetings with Arab leaders.
WASHINGTON – Defense deals between Saudi Arabia and China have been starkly absent from President Xi Jinping's landmark visit to the kingdom which concluded on Saturday and saw expansion of economic, energy and tech cooperation.
The summits that the Chinese leader held in Riyadh with Saudi and Arab leaders included agreements on nuclear energy, space exploration and both 5G and 6G technology, Xi said, but no new defense deals have been publicly disclosed.
A joint Saudi-Chinese statement on Friday stopped short of new defense announcements and said that the two sides “emphasized their determination to strengthen cooperation and coordination in various fields of defense,” including sharing intelligence on counterterrorism.
Pentagon and US intelligence officials have been watching the developments closely. Last month, senior Biden administration officials — wary of China’s inroads into the region’s arms and telecommunications markets — openly warned that certain deals between Arab states and China would force Washington to curtail its own cooperation with Gulf partners.
