Speaker 1: In China and Saudi Arabia have signed a number of agreements,
Speaker 1: including on energy and investments, joining us to take a
Speaker 1: deeper dive here as a Bloomberg Global Business reporter, Bruce Einhorn,
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Bruce for your time. This has a
Speaker 1: number of dimensions, leading from financial like an oil deal,
Speaker 1: to implications of UH Saudi SIGNO U S relationships. Let's
Speaker 1: start with energy. What do we know about what they did?
Speaker 1: So there are a bunch of deals that they signed,
Speaker 1: and to be clear, these are largely memorandums of understanding.
Speaker 1: These aren't final agreements, so you know, we should look
Speaker 1: at these with a bit of caution. UH. That said,
Speaker 1: they did sign deals related to hydrogen energy, solar power,
Speaker 1: UM hydrogen. For instance, they they signed an m OU
Speaker 1: to set up a hydrogen cracking project. UM hydrogen of
Speaker 1: course has potential to be UH real green fuel going forward,
Speaker 1: and UM relates to you Saudi Arabia's efforts to transition
Speaker 1: away from its UH really strong reliance on on fossil fuels. Okay,
Speaker 1: now there's a real interesting geopolitical angle to all of this.
Speaker 1: Every everything is UH these days, BRUSA, but really the
Speaker 1: dynamic turning of the of Saudia's turning a cold shoulder
Speaker 1: of the US on controlling oil prices and production and
Speaker 1: then meeting with President she and rolling out the red car.
Speaker 1: But if you will, can we take anything away from that? Well,
Speaker 1: there are clearly is UH in attempt by both Beijing
Speaker 1: and Riad to um intensively to developed ties. China is
Speaker 1: the largest trading partner now for Saudi Arabia. The US
Speaker 1: used to be, but the US hasn't relied so much
Speaker 1: on Saudi Arabia for oil of course for for many
Speaker 1: years now thanks to UM fracking in the United States, China,
Speaker 1: UM and so UM. In addition to the economic relationship,
Speaker 1: both China and Saudi Arabia of course not democratic governments,
Speaker 1: so authoritarian leaders who can see some common interests. So
Speaker 1: it does make sense that this is a relationship that
Speaker 1: both sides want to pursue. Yeah, Shaudi Arabia has to
Speaker 1: walk an interesting balance too, because it still needs a
Speaker 1: US for for arms production. But also coming out of
Speaker 1: this it looks as if a China is willing to
Speaker 1: supply some of that as well. UM yes um uh.
Speaker 1: China has already been a major supplier of military drones
Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia UM and to other countries in the region.
Speaker 1: UH so uh they could be trying to build on that. UM.
Speaker 1: Of course, UH, China's capability as of exporting uh weapons,
Speaker 1: military equipment nothing like the United States. So UM. As
Speaker 1: much as Saudi Arabia would like to perhaps put distance
Speaker 1: between itself and the US U, UM, it still is
Speaker 1: going to need Washington if it does want to be
Speaker 1: able to get all arms at once. Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: two also agreeing Bruce to a strengthen collaboration at the
Speaker 1: u N, the G twenty, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Now
Speaker 1: you pointed out at the top a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, they can posture and do what they want,
Speaker 1: but there are a lot of dynamics at play here. Yes, yeah, UM,
Speaker 1: but I think you know, we we do need to um.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind that a lot of these deals are
Speaker 1: things that are just um uh tentative deals. They're not
Speaker 1: full fledged deals. But clearly they are sending a message
Speaker 1: from both sides that they do want to develop this
Speaker 1: relationship further. Yeah, all right, Bruce, Hey, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for your time. Really appreciate it very much. Bruce
Speaker 1: iron Horn, Bloomberg Global business reporter,