Tag: Middle East

Beijing, Gulf Nations Expected to Sign Dozens of Deals at Summit

Chin@Strategy

Washington —  After nearly two years of preparation, the first summit between China and the Arab states is scheduled for this week, a meeting Beijing describes as a “milestone” in Sino-Arab relations. The Global Times, a daily newspaper affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, said in an opinion column Tuesday that “the summit conforms to the trend of the development of the times and will become an epoch-making milestone in the history of China-Arab relations. … The China-Arab friendly cooperation is set to enter a new stage.” The Chinese delegation…

Saudi State Media: China’s Xi to Visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday

Chin@Strategy

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia —  Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a three-day visit, his first to the world’s biggest crude oil exporter since 2016, Saudi state media reported on Tuesday. The visit will include a bilateral summit chaired by Saudi King Salman and attended by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. Xi, head of the world’s second biggest economy, will also attend a summit with rulers from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and talks…

Saudi Prince Seeks Mideast Leadership, Independence With Xi’s Visit

Chin@Strategy

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia —  Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosts China’s leader this week at a delicate moment in U.S.-Saudi ties, signaling Riyadh’s resolve to navigate a polarized global order regardless of the wishes of its Western allies, analysts said. The ruler of the oil giant has made a comeback on the world stage following the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, which cast a pall over Saudi-U.S. ties, and has been defiant in the face of U.S. ire over the kingdom’s energy policy and pressure from Washington to help isolate…

Qatar Signs 27-Year Deal With China as LNG Competition Heats Up

Chin@Strategy

Doha, Qatar —  QatarEnergy has signed a 27-year deal to supply China’s Sinopec with liquefied natural gas (LNG), the longest such LNG agreement so far as volatile markets drive buyers to seek long-term deals. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, competition for LNG has become intense, with Europe in particular needing vast amounts to help replace Russian pipeline gas that used to make up almost 40% of the continent’s imports. “Today is an important milestone for the first sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for North Field East project, it…

Your Thursday Briefing: A Journalist Killed in the West Bank

Chin@Strategy

Good morning. We’re covering the killing of an Al Jazeera journalist, China’s uncertain wheat harvest and rising religious violence in India. Journalist killed in the West Bank Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American journalist for Al Jazeera, was fatally shot in the head while reporting in the West Bank city of Jenin. Al Jazeera, citing Palestinian authorities, said Israeli forces shot her during a raid. The news network said it held the government and military accountable. Israel’s military said that it was not clear who shot her, and that it…

It’s Not Just High Oil Prices. It’s a Full-Blown Energy Crisis.

Chin@Strategy

Look to the Mediterranean, for an example. Europe’s decoupling from Russia will intensify the geopolitical tensions over gas around the sea. In the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey resents its exclusion from energy projects and has been increasingly confrontational in asserting its interests. When Turkey struck a deal with Libya in November 2019 to claim new maritime economic boundaries for itself in the eastern Mediterranean, European Union leaders denounced the agreement as a violation of Greek and Cypriot sovereignty and incompatible with United Nations law. Now the route for a pipeline to…

The 9/11 Effect and the Transformation of Global Security

Chin@Strategy

The New World of Surveillance The 9/11 attacks fundamentally reshaped the U.S. intelligence community and those of many of its close allies. In the words of a former CIA station chief, the CIA underwent a massive transformation—from gathering to hunting. This new mission supported an emphasis on kinetic counterterrorism, enshrined in the 2002 U.S. National Security Strategy, with its determination to “disrupt and destroy terrorist organizations of global reach.” The global war on terror required a shift in surveillance targets from traditional state threats and their militaries to much more…