China seeks middle ground as Xi Jinping visits Middle East

China's president Xi Jinping has embarked on a trip to the Middle East, including to bitter rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, during which oil diplomacy will feature high on the agenda as China seeks to boost its influence in a volatile region.

The three-day trip, which also includes a stop in Egypt before he returns to China on Saturday, comes as tensions are running high between the Sunni Muslims in Saudi Arabia and the Shia Muslims in Iran following the execution in Saudi of a Shia cleric earlier this month and an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran. The two countries have since ceased diplomatic and trade relations.

Mr Xi is likely to prove a popular visitor as both Iran and Saudi Arabia are major oil exporters, which needs to increase volume of sales to offset the impact of low crude prices, and China is one of their biggest customers.

China will be seeking to add diplomatic influence to its economic muscle in the region, but deputy foreign minister Zhang Ming said China would stick to the middle ground during the visit.

“Regarding some of the region’s problems, China has always taken a balanced and just position … if the Middle East is not stable, I’m afraid the world can’t be very peaceful. If a country or a region is not stable, it cannot realise development,” Mr Zhang told reporters.

Mr Xi is the first Chinese president to visit Saudi Arabia since 2009 when Hu Jintao went, while Jiang Zemin was the last Chinese president to visit Iran in 2002.

Between them, Saudi Arabia and Iran supply nearly a quarter of the country’s crude imports.

In the run-up to the visit, China issued its first Arab Policy Paper, in which it aims to set down the guiding principles of developing China-Arab relations and is similar to documents for Africa and Latin America.

In an editorial, the Xinhua news agency rejected Western criticisms that China tends to take an outside role on Middle East issues.

"Those critics may have forgotten that in a globalised era when Middle East issues such as the Islamic State and the refugee crisis spill over to other parts of the world, China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has no reason to put aside the strategic significance of the Middle East," it said.

It also pointed out how China had helped with negotiating a settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue.

On Saturday, world powers lifted economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for commitments from Tehran to curb its nuclear ambitions.

Iran is also expected to figure in China's new Silk Road initiative to develop trade and transport links across Asia and beyond, which Beijing refers to as the "one belt, one road" strategy and which is a key part of Mr Xi's policy mix.