Ties that could deepen

Early this month, the Chinese embassy and the Jordan Chamber of Trade held a discussion on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Jordanian- Chinese diplomatic relations.

His Majesty King Abdullah paid five official visits to the People’s Republic of China since his accession to the Hashemite throne: in June 2002, when Chinas’ president was Jiang Zemin, in July 2004, when His Majesty held talks with then president Hu Jintao, in October 2007, where the highlight was the King’s eloquent speech at the University of Beijing, and in September 2013 and September 2015, when he met with President Xi Jinping.

President Xi visited Jordan in January 2016.

If these visits are used as a barometer to measure the depth of relations between the two countries, the obvious conclusion is that the ties are warm and promising.

China is one of Jordan’s top trade partners (whose volume stands at around $4 billion) and imports phosphate and potash from Jordan. The trade balance is of course heavily in favour of China.

The continuous engagement between the leaders of the two countries eventually led to multilateral partnerships.

China’s ambitious “One Belt, One Road” project and its newly launched Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank are both subscribed to by Jordan as a founding member of the bank.

China is implementing long-promised projects that are coming to fruition after long haggling with public entities. One is the Chinese Technology University, another the new Chinese Mall, currently under construction in Amman.

China has already finalised and signed the financial deal to bankroll the new oil shale power station with a 480-megawatt capacity in southern Jordan.

The project uses Jordan’s oil shale deposits by direct burning.

The potential of cooperation in water and railroad projects is huge. The Chinese are urging Royal Jordanian to resume the discontinued direct flights to Guangzhou, in southern China, and believe that there is the potential to reach 1.2 million Chinese tourists a year to Jordan.

China could be a leading, integral, part of Jordan’s new impetus to activate the economy. It can contribute to the railroad project, the Red-Dead water conveyor system and to the extension of the electricity grid.

The writer is a former Royal Court chief, deputy prime minister and member of Senate. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.