Monitoring Desk: “President Xi’s vision of peace through development by enhancing ‘shared security perceptions’ is in sharp contrast to the American ‘traditional security perception’ that focuses on forming exclusive military alliances to pursue security by defeating the enemy which leaves little room for non-alignment and sovereign decision-making as it coerces nations into taking sides in its divisive ‘Us vs Them’ approach. The US has developed a hegemonic playbook that it uses to stage regime changes, stoke regional disputes, and even directly launch wars under the guise of promoting democracy, freedom, and human rights, according to a report ‘US hegemony and its perils’ released by China’s Foreign Ministry in February. The US is obsessed with war because its ‘war economy’ survives and thrives on conflict while imperiling world peace”.
This was observed by famous journalist and editor of Express Tribune Naveed Hussain in his article titled “China’s President Xi deserves Nobel for defusing Middle East powder keg” published here on Sunday.
He is of the view that Saudi-Iran rapprochement is win- win situation for Iran, Saudi Arabia as well as China. Saudi Arab wants a peaceful region for the success of its Vision 2023 while Houthis are constantly using drone and missile strikes on targets deep inside the kingdom and some estimate indicates that Saudi Arabia has lost over $265 billion over the past seven years in this senseless war that of course, Iran can end through it influence over Houthis. The Saudis could also seek security guarantees from Iran that it would rein in its proxies and prevent them from stoking tensions in the volatile region.
For Iran normalization would be useful as Saudis could disengage from the US-led proxy war to topple the Bashar Al-Asad regime in Syria. Iran has already fixed the situation with UAE. Further, de-escalation could also frustrate the US effort to cobble up an Israel-led security alliance of the regional countries against Iran.
What made China the ideal peacemaker was its equally excellent relationship with both Iran and Saudi Arabia. Beijing has been Iran’s largest trade partner for more than a decade with their bilateral trade reaching almost $16 billion in 2022. The two countries have also signed a 25-year strategic agreement to strengthen economic and security cooperation. Similarly, Saudi Arabia and China signed a bonanza of agreements, including a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, during President Xi’s visit to the kingdom in Dec 2022. Beijing is also Riyadh’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth a whopping $87.3 billion in 2021. Chinese exports to the kingdom reached $30.3 billion, while imports from Saudi Arabia totaled $57 billion.
The Chinese mediation is perfectly in line with President Xi’s ‘Global Security Initiative (GSI)’ which, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, aims to “eliminate the root causes of international conflicts, improve global security governance, encourage joint international efforts to bring more stability and certainty to a volatile and changing era, and promote durable peace and development in the world.” The core concepts of this vision include a commitment to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, taking their legitimate security concerns seriously, and peacefully resolving disputes between countries through dialogue.
