China's premier in UAE after Saudi Arabia as Beijing deepens Gulf ties

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan hosted China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang in Abu Dhabi on Thursday to discuss the strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries.

Sheikh Mohammed said in a post on X that the two discussed joint efforts to further boost the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries.

“The UAE is committed to building upon 40 years of deep-rooted cooperation with China to achieve enduring growth, development and prosperity for our peoples,” he added.

Li landed in the UAE late on Wednesday for an official visit. “I look forward to [deepening and solidifying the] China-UAE comprehensive strategic partnership and [achieving] more fruitful results in exchanges and cooperation in various fields,” the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, cited Li as saying upon his arrival at the Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi.

He further praised the continued growth in their relations and expressed hope to further advance bilateral cooperation in various fields.

Since establishing diplomatic ties in 1984, China and the UAE have continued to boost their relations in different sectors. According to Xinhua, the two countries have signed more than 130 bilateral agreements and memorandums of understanding over the past four decades.

Officials from both countries have exchanged several visits in the past years, including Sheikh Mohammed’s trip to Beijing in 2019 and more recently in May 2024.

China and the UAE upgraded their relations in 2018 with the signing of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which aims to deepen cooperation in various fields and promote bilateral ties.

The signing came during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Abu Dhabi, the first by a Chinese head of state to the Gulf nation in 29 years.

In 2023, the volume of non-oil trade between the two countries reached $81 billion, marking a 4.2% increase compared to the previous year, according to Emirates News Agency (WAM). This makes China the UAE's top non-oil trade partner, accounting for 12% of UAE trade.

Also, UAE investments in China amounted to $11.9 billion from 2003 to 2023, including in sectors like telecommunications, renewable energy, transportation, hospitality and rubber. Meanwhile, China’s investments in the Gulf nation totaled $7.7 billion during the same period, according to WAM.

China’s overtures in Arab Gulf

Li’s trip to Abu Dhabi comes one day after he visited Saudi Arabia, where he met with Sheikh Mohammed and the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The two discussed ways to further boost bilateral ties and cooperation in several fields such as energy, investment and trade.

China is seeking to deepen its role and reinforce its ties in the region, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE), where talks to establish a free trade agreement have been ongoing for several years now.

Bilateral trade between China and the Gulf stood at $286.9 billion in 2023, according to Chinese customs data cited by Reuters. Meanwhile, China is one of the main importers of Gulf oil, importing about 201 million metric tons of crude oil and 18 million tons of liquefied natural gas from the GCC nations in 2023, according to data from the Chinese National Energy Administration.