Xi kicks off Mideast visit

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to begin his first visit to the Middle East on Tuesday since taking office, as experts said the trip highlights China's balanced foreign policy of not taking sides in a region that has been split by sectarian conflicts. The six-day trip will take him to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran and is set to begin on Tuesday and end on Sunday. The trip will bear rich fruit in energy, infrastructure, trade and investment facilitation, nuclear energy, space and satellite technology and new energy, Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Ming said on Monday at a press briefing in Beijing. "The Middle East is China's last untouched major region in terms of its big power diplomacy, and completing the trip represents that China's diplomacy will realize full coverage of major regions in the world," Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times. The trip's first leg will bring Xi to Riyadh on Tuesday. Xi's visit to Saudi Arabia will also mark the first time a Chinese leader has visited the country since King Salman acceded to the throne last year. During his visit to Saudi Arabia, Xi will hold meetings with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, according to Zhang. China is the only country among major powers that has kept friendly relations with all nations in the Middle East, and Xi's visit to both Saudi Arabia and Iran amid the region's sectarian conflicts is a result of China's balanced policy of not taking sides and not allowing bilateral relations to be affected by regional conflicts, experts said. "No major leaders have visited Saudi Arabia and Iran in one trip, at least in the recent past," Wu Bingbing, head of the Institute of Arabic-Islamic Culture Studies at Peking University, told the Global Times. Tensions between Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and Shiite-dominated Iran have escalated since Saudi authorities executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr on January 2. Saudi Arabia announced on January 3 that it would break off diplomatic ties with Iran after its embassy in Tehran was attacked.