Saudi Arabia is reportedly contemplating a Chinese proposal to construct a nuclear power plant (NPP) only a week after the Kingdom was offered a place in the expanded BRICS+ club designed to counter a Western hegemony.

The China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC), a state-owned entity, has submitted a bid to build the nuclear facility in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)’s Eastern Province, near the Qatar and United Arab Emirates borders, reported Reuters on August 29.

While China's foreign ministry did not confirm the report, it emphasised continued cooperative efforts with KSA in various sectors, including civil nuclear energy.

The Chinese bid to build the nuclear power plant could complicate the US's interests in the region. Previously, Saudi Arabia had explored collaborating with the US to establish a civilian nuclear program as part of a possible normalisation agreement with Israel. However, US officials have indicated that such cooperation would be contingent on non-proliferation requirements, particularly regarding uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, something that Riyad was reluctant to concede.

The tie up between China and KSA on nuclear power is only the latest sign that the Kingdom’s long-standing close ties with the US continue to fray, and that its relations with the leading emerging markets are growing warmer.

KSA’s inclusion in the BRIC+ club came as a surprise to many observers, although Riyad has said that it is still “consulting” with partners and has not completely signed off on the deal, which only comes into force on January 1 next year.

Saudi officials acknowledge that the consideration of the Chinese proposal might serve as a tactic to encourage the Biden administration to compromise on its non-proliferation demands, Reuters reports.

Although Saudi authorities expressed a preference for South Korean state utility Korea Electric Power to construct the plant's reactors and involve US operational expertise, they are hesitant to agree to the proliferation controls usually imposed by the US.

Part of the BRICS+ offering to emerging markets is that it will mirror Western institutions, but without the strings and riders that normally come with Western institute backed deals that the emerging markets see as an attempt by the West to interfere with their internal politics or control them.

Likewise, many of the emerging markets are interested in joining the BRICS+ group to get access to the New Development Bank (NDB, formerly known as the BRICS Bank), which is supposed to perform the same function as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but without the usual strings any IMF comes with. Specifically, Argentina’s membership of the BRICS+ was championed by Brazil. It has recently signed off on a $44bn IMF rescue package designed to stave off yet another economic crisis, but Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has claimed the IMF deal is “suffocating” the economy and wants to see the NDB take over the IMF’s role of rescuing the country from economic disaster.

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, is reportedly ready to proceed with the Chinese company's bid to build the NPP if negotiations with the US fail.

Israel has voiced reservations about Saudi Arabia's potential development of a civilian nuclear program, especially within the context of any US-Saudi rapprochement. As a country outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and believed to possess nuclear weapons, Israel expects consultation from the US on matters affecting its national security.

The Chinese offer is the highest profile nuclear power construction deal Beijing has signed for an NPP outside of China, while Russia’s Russia’s nuclear technology exports are booming with dozens of projects worldwide. However, as bne IntelliNews reported China is rapidly building a NPP complex at home as part of its energy strategy to wind down its reliance on coal and switch to a clean energy source. China’s state council approved plans to build ten new NPPs on July 31 and has been building about half a dozen NPPs every year for the last decade. China is on course to overtake the US as the world’s leading source of nuclear power within the next few years.

For Russia, access to nuclear power technology is increasingly overtaking the traditional access to oil and gas as the traditional foreign policy tool to bend partner countries to your will, as bne IntelliNews described in its deep dive into Russia’s activities in Africa. The Sino-KSA NPP plans are in the same vein, as NPP construction contracts usually come with 60-year-long service deals as well as long-term fuel supply deals. China intends to produce a third of its needs for the burnable uranium 235 domestically and import the rest, but Russia remains the world leader in the refining of raw uranium into the burnable Ur 235 and is likely to be a major source of the fuel for KSA.

Saudi Arabia has been working to strengthen ties with China over the past year, including China's role in facilitating a reconnection between Saudi Arabia and its regional rival, Iran. Both nations have significant energy-related ties due to China's oil import needs and Saudi Arabia's oil exports. Additionally, China Energy Engineering Corp is engaged in constructing a major solar power station in partnership with Saudi utility developer ACWA Power.

While Saudi Arabia aims to maintain a balance between its relationships with China and the United States, the potential involvement of a Chinese company in its nuclear ambitions highlights the shifting loyalties of KSA which is positioning itself to have more independence from the US by allying more closely with the emerging BRICS bloc.

 

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