Dr. Nasser Saidi participated in the National University of Singapore(NUS)’s Middle East Institute’s annual conference held in Singapore over 11th and 12th of February, 2019.
Part of the panel on “Finance and Economics”, Dr. Saidi presented his views on whether the Middle East is ready for China, also identifying the building blocks of a strategic China- Middle East partnership. He stated that if Middle Eastern states could behave like the 10-member regional trading bloc, it could pave the way for a regional free-trade agreement with China to further improve trading volumes and future infrastructure investments from the Chinese; working together would also help the region battle the ongoing threat of terrorism.
Click to play the video of the panel session below:
More on the event: https://mei.nus.edu.sg/event/the-middle-east-pivot-chinas-bri-between-geostrategy-and-commercial-opportunity/
Media coverage:
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2185754/middle-eastern-states-have-lessons-learn-asean-building
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2019/02/14/will-china-replace-the-u-s-as-the-middle-east-hegemon
