The geopolitical landscape of the Middle East has once again resurfaced in the global political arena as a driver of competing interests between the big powers.
Trump’s disengagement policy in relation to Iran helped the latter to engage with the former’s competitors. The relative decline of the United States’ influence in the region has offered China to engage with regional actors through enhanced diplomatic means. In a bid to win over the strategic interests of the United States in the Middle East, China’s diplomatic efforts have brought together Iran and KSA on the table for the first time in recent history. Historically, the struggle for regional influence and the role of a forerunner for Islamic World fuels the rivalry between Iran and KSA under the ambit of Shia-Sunni schism.
Prior to these developments, the security landscape of the Middle East was architected by the United States’s unchallenging hegemonic role that managed relative influence, competing interests, and clashing ideologies from inside and outside. However, in the twenty first century the region viewed assertive regional policies to bolster their influence that often outmaneuvered the United States’ leverage. In this context China has increased its diplomatic presence in the region and positioned itself as a viable alternative for the regional actors. Unlike the United States whose architectured regional order rifted by contradictions and divisions, China’s diplomatic endeavors seek to integrate the region into a broader mechanism of shared governance and stability for global energy supply and trade relations.
China’s introduction in the geopolitical equation of the Middle East has allowed it to broker a detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Reconciliation without the involvement of the US signifies the break from the past and doubts among its allies about its security guarantees that the US had offered. The diplomatic re-engagement between two regional competitors announced in Beijing on Friday reflects China’s diplomatic vision of a shared future and peaceful rise in the international system.
This diplomatic achievement can be traced back to a senior Chinese diplomat’s vision of China’s regional role in the Middle East. Chinese diplomatic efforts thrive under confidentiality. The secrecy of meetings and negotiation in Beijing provided necessary conditions and also avoided external responses that could have derailed the peace brokering process. This unprecedented diplomatic achievement can be interpreted as China’s growing role and establishment of its legitimacy as a heavyweight diplomatic mediator which is able to pull together geostrategic antagonistic states. It also forecasts China as a credible peacemaker with diplomatic scope to cover conflict in Yemen, Libya and Syria among the others. This reengagement offers Chinese leadership a strategic option to de-escalate the conflicting situations which are necessary for the stability of global energy supply and realization of its Belt and Road investments.
Equally important factor is that China’s neutrality in the region’s conflicts has endowed it with the capacity to talk to all sides without ideologically lecturing them. China’s diplomatic principles of non-interference and non-alignment policy has attached credibility to its position in brokering peace between Riyadh and Tehran. This reproachment indicates China’s growing influence as an extra-regional actor in the gulf. Unlike the United States, China’s diplomatic strategy is simple and straightforward. It seeks stabilization of global energy supply and secure supply for its energy requirements while offering open catalogs to regional actors to choose whatever military equipment and economic cooperation they need.
Therefore, China’s continued formal diplomatic engagement and economic ties with Tehran provided necessary confidence. Beijing assisted Tehran in its economic insecurity and international diplomatic support that helped Tehran to counter the isolation imposed by the United States. Similarly, Saudi’s pivot to China is indicated by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s back-to-back summits to Riyadh and Gulf leadership. This marathon of summits was characterized by the agreements on energy, technology, aerospace and automotive industry trade investments and various other areas, thus, ratifying increasing close economic and security relations between the two states. Likewise, this agreement offers Iran with much required legitimacy to open itself to the Arab world and pave a workable solution for the conflicts in regional flash points such as Yemen and Lebanon. For Riyadh, the calmness of the regional tensions allows Muhammad bin Salman’s 2030 vision and Chinese assurance will prevent Tehran’s further aggression.
Furthermore, China’s global governance is concept based upon the notions of shared human destiny and international partnership characterized by win-win outcome, principle of mutual consultation and development. The initiatives of Belt and Road and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank focuses on the infrastructural development, interconnectivity and economic security through China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and String of Pearls strategy. This also informs Chinese global diplomacy manifested in its strategic partnership with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt Algeria, Turkey, and UAE. In this framework China is fostering economic development and industrialization rather than focusing on the regional rivalries to gain geo-political advantages. Consequently, the substance of China’s diplomatic policy is engagement and pragmatic. This approach has increased China’s diplomatic appeal and soft power in the context of the Belt and Road initiative.
Pakistan has also been desiring to normalize bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and Tehran; this welcoming development fits well with Pakistan’s strategic vision for the Middle East and its own foreign policy. It will allow Pakistan the necessary strategic space for maneuvering without antagonizing either of the Middle Eastern giants. Likewise, being an essential part of the BRI, Pakistan can significantly place its interests in the global governance model of China that emphasizes regional stability and economic development, two factors that Pakistan needs more than ever. Pakistan’s historical and bilateral ties with these three actors China, Iran and Saudi Arabia offer her to benefit from this diplomatic achievement.
In conclusion, China’s growing role in the Middle East signifies post-American order and a new era of Asian engagement designed primarily by economic security and shared governance model for the development. The geopolitical landscape of the Middle East is experiencing new strategic flux, redefined structural logic and rearranging itself on the new organizing principle. The geopolitical equation in the Middle East is altered by a significant number of larger structural shifts regarding the weight and relative position of specific regional and extra-regional actors. The new equation appears to be directed by the game-changing role of China and relative loss for the United States, and increased autonomous agentic deliberation of regional actors in shaping the regional developments
ENGR QAISER NAWAB
Engr Qaiser Nawab, a highly esteemed international expert on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. With a passion for global peace and climate activism, Qaiser is also recognized as a prominent Pakistani youth leader, United Nations SDGs advocate, and freelance journalist. With a wealth of knowledge and experience in his field, Qaiser can be reached at qaisernawab098@gmail.com for any inquiries or collaborations.