Key Highlights From Wang Yi’s Six-Nation Tour of the Persian Gulf and Turkey

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi returned home on Sunday after wrapping up a five-day, six-nation tour of the Persian Gulf and Turkey. Wang’s visit highlighted the growing importance that Beijing now assigns to its diplomatic ties in the broader MENA arena and its aspirations to play a larger role in regional diplomacy. 

One of the key themes of the tour, albeit largely unspoken, was China’s efforts to build a new coalition against the United States and Europe. This was most visible in Iran, not surprisingly, but was also an undercurrent in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Both countries face increasingly strained ties with the West.

Key Themes From Wang Yi’s Tour of the Persian Gulf and Turkey

  • XINJIANG: Wang took China’s message on Xinjiang to some of the world’s most influential Muslim countries as part of an effort to push back against critics in the U.S. and Europe who accuse Beijing of mass internment of its minority Uyghur population. In both Saudi Arabia, home of the holy site of Mecca, and in Iran, the world’s largest Shia country, Xinjiang took a back seat to economic issues. In Turkey, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu only barely raised the issue with Wang. He said that he “conveyed our sensitivity and thoughts” — a far cry from Ankara’s position in 2019 when Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said “China’s systematic assimilation policy toward Uighur Turks are great embarrassment for humanity.” (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)
  • MIDEAST SECURITY: On several occasions throughout the tour, Wang spoke of Beijing’s desire to play a larger role in the Mideast peace process and to help serve as a broker in the Iranian nuclear negotiations. China plans to propose a “five-point initiative on achieving security and stability in the Middle East” and plans to invite Palestinian and Israeli leaders to Beijing for talks. But it looks like, for the most part, that idea is a non-starter.  “China’s made this offer before and nobody took it seriously, because China isn’t an especially important actor as far as Israel/Palestine goes,” said China-Persian Gulf scholar Jonathan Fulton. “Nobody is asking for a Chinese solution as far as I know,” he added.

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The post Key Highlights From Wang Yi’s Six-Nation Tour of the Persian Gulf and Turkey appeared first on The China Africa Project.



source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2021/03/29/key-highlights-from-wang-yis-six-nation-tour-of-the-persian-gulf-and-turkey/

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