From Breakingviews - Middle East pivot to Asia is strategic this time
Xi Jinping has brokered a deal the United States would have found hard to secure, despite its traditional military influence in the Middle East. China's president did so on the same day he officially secured a third term, and in the same week the People’s Republic paved the way for a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout for Sri Lanka by committing to reorganise the island’s debt.
The Middle East has trained its financial sights on Asia before. In 2014 the Qatar Investment Authority said it would invest up to $20 billion in Asia within five years. That failed to flourish much further as a scandal at Malaysia’s sovereign fund, 1MDB, was linked back to its peers and financial institutions in the Gulf.
This time, the interest appears more mutual and more strategic. Following the West’s schism with Russia over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, some policymakers think the world is splitting into two blocks, with the United States and Europe on one side, and a China-led Asia and Russia on the other.
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