Washington is not asking Saudi Arabia or “anyone to choose” between the US and the US. ChinaThis was announced today by the US Secretary of State. Anthony Blinken in Riyadh, despite many disagreements with the monarchy.

The US official made the announcement at the end of a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, a longtime important partner with whom Washington has sometimes had strained relations, especially on human rights issues.

A major US rival, China has strengthened its trade and diplomatic ties in the Middle East, a region traditionally under US influence, with Beijing even seeing a recent rapprochement between the region’s two archrivals, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

“We are not asking anyone to choose between the United States and China,” Blinken said at a joint press conference with his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan. “We’re just trying to show the benefits of our cooperation,” he stressed.

His Saudi counterpart confirmed that ties between his country and Beijing will “grow” and Riyadh also maintains a “strong security partnership with the US.” “I don’t buy into this zero-sum game. We can all have many partnerships and commitments, as is the case with the United States,” Faisal bin Farhan insisted.

Anthony Blinken has also tried to iron out other differences, especially over the Syrian regime, with which Saudi Arabia recently normalized relations after more than a decade of boycott during the Syrian civil war.

According to APE-MPE, Reuters, AFP