ISLAMABAD: Former ambassadors to Beijing and international experts said on Wednesday Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia this week was likely to bring in more investment into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

Xi arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday for a three-day visit that China has hailed as its largest ever diplomatic foray into the Arab world. The visit comes at a time when Riyadh is seeking to expand global alliances beyond its longstanding partnership with the West.

During the visit, Xi is scheduled to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other heads of states from Gulf Arab states. Saudi Arabia and China are expected to sign over 20 agreements worth more than $29.3 billion and will discuss a plan to harmonize the implementation of Saudi’s Vision 2030 and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi’s signature infrastructure investment initiative that includes CPEC.

Under the CPEC project, China has pledged over $60 billion in energy, infrastructure, agriculture, IT and various other schemes in Pakistan. At the heart of the project is a Chinese-funded deep-water port in Pakistan’s southwestern town of Gwadar in Balochistan province.

The CPEC project, Pakistani experts hope, would figure in Xi’s meetings with the Saudi crown prince. In 2018, after then Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Riyadh and meetings with the crown prince, the premier’s ruling party had announced Riyadh’s willingness to be a part of CPEC as a “third strategic partner.”

“Saudi Arabia is interested in becoming part of CPEC by investing heavily in it and is also interested in BRI,” Pakistan’s former ambassador to China, Naghmana Hashmi, told Arab News.

“This visit will improve things in this regard as China is the main initiator of both mega projects.”

“The growing friendship between China and Saudi Arabia will benefit Pakistan as the country has very good relations with both, and both are pillars of strength for us,” Hashmi added.

International relations expert Zafar Jaspal told Arab News the visit would have a “constructive and positive impact” on CPEC.

“[The visit] will open the way for Saudi investment in Gwadar and other parts of the [CPEC] project, especially in the petro industry as the kingdom’s leadership has expressed in the past,” Jaspal said.

International affairs expert Dr. Huma Baqai said an improved relationship between China and Saudi Arabia would help Pakistan “sustain Western pressure.”

“If inroads are made by China into Saudi Arabia, this will help Pakistan in every aspect as the country is squeezed by Western powers and their institutions and this squeeze will ease if there is a better relationship between two friends of Pakistan,” she told Arab News.

CPEC, Baqai said, could be a “great convergence point” between the three countries and “give the requisite push and momentum to intended Saudi investment in the flagship project of the BRI.”

Former ambassador Javed Hafeez, experienced in Middle East affairs, said Saudi Arabia was diversifying its international relations and trying to improve relations with all powers, including China, Russia, the US and other Western countries.

“This policy is exactly the same as Pakistan is following,” he said, “so it is good for us as well and the prospects of expansion of CPEC will also increase.”