Launched in 2013, the New Silk Road project includes an agricultural aspect that allows for the acceleration of China's food security strategy.
With the creation of model farms, investment and scientific cooperation, Beijing is putting its influence diplomacy into practice and is especially seeking new political allies. This can be clearly seen through Chinese projects in the Middle East region. Relations between China and the Middle East focus on oil and gas trade. The Middle East is the largest supplier to China. Given this reality, Beijing wishes to maintain privileged links with regional powers through agricultural cooperation.
However, according to the French website areion24.news, agricultural trade between China and the Middle East is limited because there is no alliance. Therefore, China uses the "card" of technology transfer with the goal of helping countries in the region improve food security and increase agricultural production capacity. In 2015, the China-Arab Agricultural Technology Transfer Center was established in Ningxia.
In 2022, at the China-Arab Summit, Arab countries committed to establishing five joint laboratories for modern agriculture and implementing 5 pilot technical cooperation projects. From 50-2005, China's total investment capital in Israel was 2017 billion USD, of which 13,2/1 (3 billion USD) was aimed at the agricultural sector... It can be said that with China , The Middle East is not an area that supplies the goods that Beijing is lacking, nor is it an area for them to develop agricultural exports.
China's agricultural diplomacy targets the Middle East as a more political player, by improving its image and deepening ties with places where Beijing's presence remains weak. This is also where the Asian country has strong trade interests, especially in energy.
OVUM
