Saudi & US talking nuclear energy for the Kingdom, China-GCC talking nuclear too, China-Algeria Business forum on investment held in Algiers
I’m going to be traveling from tomorrow until Sunday so unless something unusual happens, I won’t be posting until Monday.
U.S. Revives Talks With Saudi Arabia on Transfer of Nuclear Technology - New York Times. So this is not explicitly a China-MENA story, but indirectly it’s absolutely a China-MENA story. As I frequently mention here, I’m finishing a book. I’d hoped today that I’d get the last stretch done before I fly tomorrow for a quick getaway, but I came up short and it looks like either Tuesday or Thursday of next week I’ll be sending it off into the world. It’s been - by far - the longest and least fun book-writing project I’ve had, but now that I see the end of it I’m starting to appreciate it more. I only bring this up because there is a section on China’s attempts to crack into the nuclear energy sector in the Arab world, and Saudi Arabia would be a tremendous jewel in China National Nuclear Corporation’s (CNNC) crown. Egypt’s gone to Russia, the UAE to Korea, and other Arab countries that were seriously considering nuclear energy - Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain - pulled out after the Fukushima disaster. Saudi has the ambition, the money, and the plan, and with the already dense cooperation with China, it’s not as outlandish as it might sound.
In 2011 the Kingdom announced the plan of 16 nuclear reactors over the following 20 years. This would generate 20% of its electricity and cost, inshallah, $80 billion. In 2017 I started to notice lots of stories about CNNC in Saudi. They’d signed an exploratory MoU to dig around for uranium and thorium, and another to map out the use of gas-cooled nuclear reactors for seawater desalination. The Saudi government put out a call for bids on the first batch of reactors, and an unidentified Chinese company was one of the five to tender.
Of course, one of the sticking points for the Kingdom’s nuclear plan has always been the nonproliferation “gold standard” that the UAE agreed to - a commitment to forego enrichment and reprocessing spent fuel to obtain plutonium. The Saudis, as a sovereign state and a signatory of the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, hasn’t felt compelled to agree to this, especially when facing Iran’s nuclear program. It didn’t help that the Crown Prince said, on 60 Minutes, that “Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.”
In 2020 The Wall Street Journal reported that the Saudis were mining uranium oxide ore with the help of an unnamed Chinese company, and when all of this is added up together, it looked like China was in a good position to win some significant contracts in the nuclear field with Saudi Arabia.
So as the US-Saudi-Israel negotiation has dragged on, the Kingdom’s civil nuclear program has been a focal point. The Saudis want it, they want the US to work with them on it, and they have China waiting in the wings. This announcement that the US and Saudis are talking about a deal comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s recent announcement that Saudi will one again be his first overseas destination. Of course, it will still require congressional approval and there’s lots of haggling to be done, but the fact that China wants it makes me think it’s that much more important to Washington.
The Trump administration has revived talks with Saudi officials over a deal that would give Saudi Arabia access to U.S. nuclear technology and potentially allow it to enrich uranium, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday.
The deal — which the Biden administration had pursued as part of a broader agreement for Saudi Arabia to establish ties with Israel — would enable the kingdom to develop a “commercial nuclear power industry,” Mr. Wright told journalists in Riyadh. He added that he expected to see “meaningful developments” this year.
“We’ve not reached the details on an agreement, but it certainly looks like there is a pathway to do that,” he said. “The issue is control of sensitive technology. Are there solutions to that that involve enrichment here in Saudi Arabia? Yes.”
China Expresses Interests in Strengthening Nuclear Energy Cooperation with GCC - Kuwait News Agency. A coincidence? Probably not.
Secretary-General of the China Atomic Energy Authority, Huang Ping affirmed on Tuesday China’s commitment to strengthening strategic partnerships with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, particularly in nuclear energy.
This came during a meeting with Kuwait’s Ambassador to China, Jassem Al-Najem, to discuss preparations for the upcoming GCC-China forum for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, scheduled to be held next week in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Algeria eyes closer economic ties with China - Xinhua.
Algerian Industry Minister Sifi Ghrib on Tuesday stressed the government's support for partnerships between Chinese and Algerian investors to strengthen economic cooperation between the two nations.
Ghrib made the remarks during his opening address at the Algeria-China Business Forum on Investment held in Algiers.
According to the minister, 1,311 Chinese companies are operating successfully across Algeria's various economic sectors, and bilateral trade reached 12.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2024.
Director of the Algerian Investment Promotion Agency (AAPI) Omar Rekkache revealed that the agency approved 42 Chinese projects worth 4.5 billion dollars since its launch in 2022, which include 22 direct investments and 20 joint ventures.
The Algeria-China Business Forum on Investment, organized by the AAPI, aims to attract Chinese investment and deepen bilateral economic ties. During the forum, eight cooperation agreements were signed between Algerian and Chinese companies in various sectors, including automotive manufacturing and agriculture.