CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VI (1) Contemporary-Eurasia-VI-1-engl | Page 42

ARAM ABAJYAN
was viewed as significant step to foster Beijing’s coordination
actions 7 .
China’s interests in the Gulf region have been evolving, and in the
st
21 century they cover the following objectives and interests: geopolitical
interests, economic and trade cooperation interests, energy security
interests, non-traditional security interests.
Thus, Beijing’s approach in this region is multilevel:
 Maintain diplomatic relations with GCC countries individually;
 Initiate formal mechanisms of regular regional forums;
 Engage in people-to-people diplomacy: student exchanges and
establishments of Confucius Institutes in each GCC state;
 Maintain dialogues with other major powers;
 Take participation in important multilateral conferences referring
to regional affairs 8 .
China’s willingness to collaborate and deepen its energy cooperation
with the GCC states is evident, as the country needs to meet its rapidly
growing energy demands 9 .
Despite energy sector the notable wealth of the GCC states let them
seek for investment opportunities with China as well. China-GCC
mutual projects regarding telecommunication and infrastructure
development are notable. For example, Arabic ‘Etissalat’ and China’s
biggest telecom-equipment maker ‘Huawei’ reached an agreement of
further cooperation in order to develop this field. Another significant
approach is development of tourism. In regard to three major airlines
in the Gulf region-‘Emirates’, ‘Etihad’ and ‘Qatar Airways’, Chinese
and Arab populations will have more opportunities for social interaction.
From 2003 to 2009 China and the GCC states were implementing
large investment projects, which attracted much media attention.
Nevertheless, the fact is that China’s foreign direct investment (FDI)
flow from Arab states rose only from 0.17 percent to 0.27 percent of
the total with the heap coming from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates. At the same time, Beijing’s FDI in Arab world stayed at one
7
Ibid, p. 37.
Ibid, p. 35.
9
Yetiv S and Chunlong Lu, China, Global Energy and the Middle East, Middle
East Journal 61 (2), 2007, pp. 207–208.
8
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