Chapter 1343 - Core interests

Riyadh.

In the palace, Liu Tao was having a private meeting with the Saudi King.

Naturally, my trip to Saudi Arabia this time was not just to participate in the completion ceremony of the Mai-Mai high-speed railway project.

Coming here to promote the relationship between the two parties is also an important purpose of Liu Tao's trip.

King Abdullah, the two have known each other for more than 20 years and can be considered old friends.

Both sides know each other well and know what their respective countries want.

"Abdullah, we are very supportive of Saudi Arabia's core interests. I think we have no contradiction in this regard. In fact, we are very complementary, which is also a cornerstone of the development of our bilateral relations. "Liu Tao said, "It has always been a matter of China's core interests, and Saudi Arabia has also given great support. We are very grateful to firmly support each other in safeguarding our core interests. This is the consensus of both of us."

The core interest of Saudi Arabia is, first of all, to safeguard national security. Saudi Arabia is located in the Middle East and has an important geographical location. There have been long-term conflicts and turmoil in neighboring countries and regions. Therefore, one of Saudi Arabia's core interests is to maintain its own national security and prevent wars and conflicts from affecting its domestic stability.

In recent years, whether Saudi Arabia has promoted the Arab League and the Arab Allied Forces, purchased a large number of advanced weapons, built a first air force, first navy, first army in the region, and built a complete air defense force, it is all out of safeguarding national security. consider.

Until now, all Saudi weapons and equipment are produced by Panshan Group.

Without the Panshan Group, Saudi Arabia would not be where it is now even if it spends several times, even ten times the money.

Judging from the paper data, Saudi Arabia's military power is truly very luxurious. It can be called luxurious in a mess.

Of course, paper data is paper data, but the actual combat effectiveness is another matter.

However, in order to compensate for its own strength and strengthen military training, Saudi Arabia has hired 50,000 mercenaries so far.

The economic crisis broke out in the United States, and everything was exactly the same as the Great Depression in 1929. Saudi Arabia was also afraid of the outbreak of three wars like during World War II.

These 50,000 mercenaries gave Saudi Arabia a great sense of security.

Coupled with Saudi Arabia's seemingly powerful navy, air force, and army, Saudi Arabia is now like a tiger, very capable of bluffing people.

At least the United States has now changed its strategy and has become a wooing Saudi Arabia. It no longer scares Saudi Arabia as it did before.

Saudi Arabia's second core interest is to ensure oil exports. Saudi Arabia is one of the largest oil exporters in the world, and its economy is highly dependent on oil exports. Even in recent years, Saudi Arabia has made great progress in industry. Panshan Group has invested in and built many factories in Saudi Arabia, attracting many Chinese companies to invest in Saudi Arabia. Although factories are being built, oil and related industries are still Saudi Arabia's pillar industries, and oil revenue is Saudi Arabia's main source of income, accounting for the absolute majority. Therefore, ensuring the safety and stability of oil exports is one of Saudi Arabia's core interests.

This includes protecting oil facilities from attacks, ensuring the security of oil transportation routes, and maintaining the stability of international oil markets.

Saudi Arabia’s third core interest is regional influence. As a major and powerful country in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia hopes to maintain and expand its influence in the region. It supports pro-Saudi regimes and forces, opposes anti-Saudi regimes and forces, and plays a mediating and balancing role in regional conflicts.

In this regard, Liu Tao is naturally happy to see the success.

A multi-polar world is his pursuit, and it would be great if Saudi Arabia could become one.

Of course, it is more likely that the Arab League as a whole will become a pole in the world.

Another core interest of Saudi Arabia is religious interests. Saudi Arabia is home to Mecca and Medina, the important holy sites of Islam, so maintaining the unity and stability of the Islamic world is also one of its core interests.

And these interests naturally have no conflict with China's interests.

Saudi Arabia is a big consumer market. The entire Arab world is a major consumer market.

As the world's current world factory and the world's largest industrial country, what China needs is not land, but a market. China's current land is already large, enough to ensure living space. What China needs more is a market so that it can happily make a small amount of money.

Overproduction is also a very troublesome thing.

In addition to promoting the internal consumer market, the external consumer market cannot be given up.

At this time, although monsters and monsters appeared, the biggest impact of this crisis was on the industrial system of Europe and the United States. More factories in Europe and the United States went bankrupt during the crisis.

While China's export volume seems to be declining, its export share is actually rising.

Liu Tao knew that the United States was changing its strategy, and even Hillary Clinton came to visit Saudi Arabia, intending to win over Saudi Arabia and improve relations with Saudi Arabia, thereby improving relations with the entire Arab world.

But he is not worried. Saudi Arabia has made a 180-degree change.

As long as the United States does not end its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the relationship between the two sides will not really change.

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Afghanistan is an Islamic country, and Iraq is also an Islamic country.

In the Islamic world, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are regarded as holy wars against Western hegemony, and many Islamic jihadists have joined them.

Furthermore, Saudi Arabia actually dominates the entire Arab League and the Arab Coalition, and is the most influential country in the Gulf region, which has fundamental interests with the United States.

The U.S. military force in Iraq threatens Saudi Arabia's national security and its core interests.

The United States is no longer Saudi Arabia's largest oil exporter. In recent years, the United States has continuously increased its oil imports from Latin America and promoted the diversification of oil imports. In addition, the production of shale oil in the United States has also been increasing. Before that, the production of shale oil in the United States reached 5 million tons. At that time, it was estimated that in about ten or twenty years, the United States would change from an oil importer to an oil exporter.

The sharp drop in international crude oil prices, in addition to Liu Tao's two fires and the outbreak of the economic crisis in the United States, is not it Saudi Arabia, Russia and other countries who do not want to see the development of American shale oil technology, using oil as a weapon, and slashing prices to make American shale oil unprofitable, and even losing money on every barrel produced.

This can be seen from the bankruptcy of a large number of shale oil-related companies in the United States.

In any case, the production cost of shale oil is relatively high, and the United States is a capitalist country, and it is impossible for it to produce at all costs like China Petroleum Group.

Of course, there is another very important reason, which is Israel.

As the Barack government needs Jewish capital, it also leans more towards Israel in policy, which undoubtedly deepens the contradiction between the Arab world and the United States.

In the Arab world, opposing Israel is politically correct.

If it weren't for the United States's stubborn protection, Israel would have been pushed down long ago! (End of this chapter)