Contracts for PRC companies in Kuwait, 15,000 Chinese companies in UAE, Calabrese on China-Gulf renewables, Chinese language in KSA schools, Iranian oil to China, Car parts manufacturing in Algeria

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Chinese company signs 557-mln-USD infrastructure construction contracts in Kuwait - Global Times. It’s been interesting to watch China-Kuwait cooperation over the past year. There hadn’t been much momentum for years - or at least that I’d noticed - and now there’s a fairly steady stream of contracts. If any readers in Kuwait have an explanation from the Kuwaiti side I’d love to talk. My assumption is that with the Mubarak Port project there’s been a lot more opportunity for investment contracting, and Chinese companies are well-established in the region for this. I don’t think there’s a bigger story to it - Kuwait’s Defence Cooperation Agreement with the US is a major pillar in its security and defence policy, and that puts a pretty low ceiling on what China is able to do. Trade and infrastructure contracts aren’t problematic so expect more of those, but I wouldn’t expect to see PRC involvement in critical infrastructure, defence contracting, or tech cooperation that could put Kuwait’s relationship with DC in a tight spot. Transactional is the key word in looking at PRC-Kuwait.