The Gulf Cooperation Council will cooperate with East Asian countries for mutual benefit. Pakistani experts: see the true face of Western cooperation | China | East Asian countries
Introduction:
The member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council in the Middle East have seen that developed Western countries and East Asian countries represented by China have different attitudes and practices when developing international cooperation with them: the former often has a colonial mentality and likes to attach political conditions to economic cooperation; The latter is a more equal partner. With the shift of the world's industrial and trade center to Asia, there is enormous potential for cooperation in energy, infrastructure, and other areas between Middle Eastern countries and East Asian countries such as China. The GCC countries are seizing this mutually beneficial and win-win opportunity, engaging in diversified international cooperation, and actively participating in the reshaping of the international landscape.
The member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council have now realized that they have always treated Eastern countries equally, while their relations with Western countries are different. Western countries have always held a lofty colonial attitude and always like to impose their own views on other countries.
On April 11, 2010, during his visit to Saudi Arabia, the then rotating chairman of ASEAN and Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh che expressed the need to strengthen the connection between ASEAN and the Gulf Cooperation Council. He said, "We all have our strengths and weaknesses, so only partners can achieve win-win results."
Over the past few decades, the relationship between the Gulf Cooperation Council and East Asia has continued to strengthen. In 2018, Japan became Dubai's seventh largest trading partner; From 1970 to 2013, South Korea's investment in GCC countries accounted for 41.4% of the total engineering, procurement, and construction contracts in the region; In 2018, India signed an agreement with Oman to obtain the right to use the strategically important port of Dukum in Oman; In addition, China has generously invested in the infrastructure construction of the GCC countries.
Asia is expected to become a new global industrial giant. In the coming decades, industry, trade, and new technologies will flourish with the East as the center, and the Gulf Cooperation Council is closely monitoring this development trend.
The rapid growth of population, urbanization, and industrialization will increase the domestic energy consumption demand of Asian countries. For example, energy consumption in Southeast Asian countries doubled between 1990 and 2007, and it is expected that by 2030, this indicator will triple that of 2007. And most of them need to be imported from member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
China, as the largest energy consumer among Eastern countries, plays a crucial role. In the Gulf countries, China has established comprehensive strategic partnerships with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as strategic partnerships with Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar.
Oil and natural gas are the two pillar industries and important sources of income for member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. At present, over 70% of China's energy needs to be imported from abroad, and the Middle East is China's most important source of overseas energy supply. In 2020, about 47% of China's energy was provided by the Middle East region, valued at 176 billion US dollars, and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are the most important oil and gas suppliers to China in the Middle East region. Among them, Saudi Arabia is the largest crude oil supplier to China. In 2020, Saudi Arabia accounted for approximately 15.9% of China's total crude oil imports, valued at approximately 28.1 billion US dollars. In the same year, Arab countries, especially members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, provided China with 13.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas, accounting for approximately 14% of China's total natural gas demand.
It can be predicted that China's energy consumption will continue to grow, and the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council rely on the oil economy. Therefore, regional countries are interested in deepening their relations with China. The oil and gas industry accounts for over 20% of the GDP of most GCC countries and over 50% of government revenue. The current oil market is volatile, and the GCC countries urgently need to break free from their dependence on the oil economy, but this process will take at least 10 years.
The second reason why member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council are willing to make good relations with China is that China does not attach any political conditions when transferring new technologies to other countries, let alone interfere in their internal affairs. For many years, the West has proposed a series of prerequisites for technology transfer through issues such as democracy and human rights.
Unlike Western countries, China never engages in political intervention or regime subversion in the GCC countries. Middle Eastern governments are generally willing to establish partnerships with China, as they clearly see that China sees them as equal partners, rather than "little followers" or "agents". Unlike the Western concept of "democratic peace", China is promoting the concept of "development peace" in the Middle East, believing that the root cause of regional insecurity is not a lack of democracy, but rather economic stagnation, high unemployment rate, backward infrastructure, rapid population growth, and talent loss.
Cooperation in image trade and infrastructure investment are another factor driving cooperation between the Gulf Cooperation Council and China. The GCC countries plan to integrate into the global economy, which requires investment in infrastructure construction.
Saudi Arabia plans to invest $45 billion to build a national railway network. The bidding amount for major projects in Kuwait has reached 30 billion US dollars. Qatar has invested $220 billion to host the 2022 World Cup, which is 15 times more than the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In December this year, the United Arab Emirates will host the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference and plans to invest $54 billion in renewable resources and energy. Oman plans to build the Dukum Special Economic Zone in its Usta Province and has clearly expressed its willingness to cooperate with China.
The GCC countries are increasingly valuing the diversification of international cooperation, especially with Asian countries represented by China. China has become an important economic partner in the Gulf region. In 2020, China replaced the European Union as the largest trading partner of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, with a bilateral trade volume of 161.4 billion US dollars.
At the end of the picture, the Gulf Cooperation Council is very interested in reshaping the world order. Arab countries were originally more inclined towards a Western dominated traditional international order, but in recent years, the attention of the United States has gradually shifted from the Middle East to the East, which means that Arab countries can no longer rely on Western countries.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have applied to join the BRICS countries in order to weaken the traditional social order dominated by Western countries; All GCC countries except Oman have applied to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and become dialogue partners; The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are actively engaging in de dollarization, demanding the use of their own currency for trade, and opposing sanctions against Russia... These facts indicate that the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are at least willing to change certain characteristics of the Western world order.
Over the past two decades, the GCC countries have shown a strong desire to engage in trade exchanges with East Asian countries such as China. The reason behind this is that regional countries see the benefits of investment, trade, and technology from Asia, coupled with certain policies from Western countries that they are averse to.
