As Secretary of State Tony Blinken travels to Brussels in order to build a “common front” against Russia and China, China is taking up the challenge with its own diplomatic offensive. After his very successful meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in Guilin, Foreign Minister Wang Yi is traveling to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Oman, the UAE, Iran and Bahrain. In Saudi Arabia he met with Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman. MBS said that Saudi Arabia expressed support for China in its policy in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, opposes interference in China’s internal affairs under any pretext, and opposes individual attempts to inflame relations between China and the Islamic world. In Turkey, which has its own geopolitical operations with the Uighur element, the Uighurs were out to protest the visit in both Ankara and Istanbul. Nevertheless Turkey expressed support for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has given Turkey new corridors of transportation and development, accepted a major shipload of Chinese vaccines, and expressed continued support for an extradition treaty with China, which the Uighurs also claim is targeting them. Wang Yi met both with Foreign Minister Cavusoglu and with President Erdogan. The Turkish side expressed an interest in having a strategic partnership with China.
China has also announced that the government will be arranging a meeting in China between Israeli and Palestinian representatives in an attempt to get these important talks started and to counter the unilateral attempt, initiated under Trump, to settle the issue without the Palestinians. In a related track, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe is visiting Serbia, Greece, and Hungary. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Lavrov visited Seoul for discussions with his South Korean counterparts, discussing, among other things, the South Korean missile tests.
