Saudi prince meets Xi, secures oil deal

BEIJING: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday and bagged a $10 billion oil deal, pressing on with his diplomatic charm offensive in Asia following a global outcry over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Mohammed arrived in Beijing on Thursday following visits to Pakistan and India, showing the world that his country still has allies after the grisly murder of Khashoggi at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.

“China is a good friend and partner to Saudi Arabia,” Xi told Mohammed in a meeting in the Great Hall of the People.

“Saudi Arabia’s relations with China can be traced back a very long time in the past,” the crown prince said. “Over such a long period of exchanges with China, we have never experienced any problems with China.” He met with Chinese vice premier Han Zheng earlier on Friday.

“Is the crown prince’s tour symbolic of Saudi Arabia’s pivot to the East? Yes,” Najah alotaibi, a senior analyst at the prosaudi think tank Arabia Foundation, told AFP.

“Riyadh wants to strengthen alliances in Asia - especially now with the continuing fallout with the US over Khashoggi’s murder and other issues, and attempts by the EU to put Riyadh on a blacklist over money laundering allegations.”

Riyadh’s national oil giant Saudi Aramco said it has signed an agreement to form a Saudichinese joint venture - worth more than $10 billion - to develop a refining and petrochemical complex in Liaoning province.

The Saudi crown prince told the Chinese president they could jointly work on projects “to realise more progress and jointly confront challenges”.