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China's lockdown policy has affected its export-fuelled industries and brought them to a "grind", forcing Beijing to establish trade and investment links with the West Asia North Africa (WANA) nations, Geopolitik reported.
China's recent outreach to West Asia North Africa (WANA) nations underlines that it is seeking solace by establishing links with this region. Moreover, the case is similar to the WANA countries as they are also eager to work with China on sustainable development, space exploration, weapons procurement and infrastructure, according to Geopolitik. The rising popularity of Chinese language studies is another pointer in the region. China has also strengthened its engagement with many countries by signing strategic cooperation deals with Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as per the Geopolitik report. The last year witnessed a number of high-profile visits and agreements with several WANA countries including the visit of the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia to Beijing. China has emerged as the main source of foreign investment in Middle East countries. Beijing seeks to have energy cooperation with Middle East countries. It is pertinent to note here that China-WANA energy cooperation has strengthened even as Saudi Arabia and UAE, which are the major oil producers of the Gulf have had disagreements with the US over energy, as per the news report. Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chaired the virtual meeting of the Political and Foreign Affairs Committee under the Saudi-China High-Level Joint Committee in October. In addition to clean hydrogen and nuclear energy, the two nations are believed to be working on joint investment in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) nations. China is making efforts to increase civil aviation collaboration and bilateral air traffic. Furthermore, Chinese company Huawei also has a number of projects going on in Kuwait, including 5G, cloud services, and ICT training for young Kuwaitis. In Iraq, China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp (CPECC) signed an agreement with Basra Energy Company Limited in October 2022 for establishing new crude oil processing facilities at Rumaila Oilfield. Similar to this, the Qatari Armed Forces are receiving supplies from M/s China Vanguard Industry Corporation (CVIC), a Chinese state-owned military equipment trading company. The supply include missiles, support gear, replacement components, and technical training. Furthermore, Morocco has grown to be an important location for Chinese investments in Africa, hosting over 80 projects around the country. Morocco also approved the "Joint Belt and Road Implementation Plan" in January 2022, GeoPolitik reported. China has been making efforts for covering the WANA region through investment. However, it remains to be seen to what extend these countries will get involved with Beijing over investments, considering its track record "of laying debt trap for developing nations." (ANI)
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