Asian Angle | Why Japan and South Korea should deepen their stakes as US-China rivalry ensnares the Gulf

The increase in top-level diplomatic meetings between the leaders of Asia’s major powers and the wealthy Gulf Arab states, which Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently visited, indicates the oil-rich region is fast becoming a strategic battleground for countries in the Indo-Pacific.

It should be noted that China has, over the past decade, positioned itself as a viable alternative to the United States as an economic and diplomatic partner for the region, coinciding with a marked decline of trust between Washington and major regional economies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Beijing has secured a great deal of clout by investing more than US$100 billion in the Gulf Arab states, while carefully synchronising enhancements to its strategic relationships with them and their regional rival Iran.

The goodwill China has earned allowed it to play the role of guarantor in the March agreement reached between Saudi Arabia and Iran that restored diplomatic relations after a seven-year hiatus.

By providing key US partners Riyadh and Abu Dhabi with greater scope for strategic autonomy, Beijing altered the American diplomatic machine’s efforts to corral its Gulf partners into a new regional security architecture in which Washington would dictate the terms, and over which top US ally Israel would exercise considerable influence.