Gulf–Pacific Asia Linkages in the Twenty-First Century

A plethora of economic, diplomatic, cultural and other highly pragmatic linkages are finally making the long-predicted ‘Asianisation’ of Asia a reality. ¹ As this chapter will demonstrate, the powerful and multidimensional connections that are being forged by the very eastern and western extremities of the continent are poised to become a central pillar of this process. Given time, this will finally lead to the emergence of meaningful bilateral ties between non-Western poles of the international system involving states that up until recently had been considered peripheral to the global economy and dependent on the advanced capitalist countries for their trade and investment (Ehteshami 2004: 133–4). Most notably, an important new relationship is developing between the six monarchies of the Gulf – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman – and the three most advanced economies of Pacific Asia – Japan, China and South Korea. With little shared modern economic history, with enormous political and socio-economic disparities and separated by great geographical distances, the rapidly tightening economic interdependence between the two regions is a recent phenomenon that deserves considerable attention. What began as a simple, late twentieth-century marriage of convenience based on hydrocarbon imports and exports has now evolved into a comprehensive, long-term mutual commitment that will not only continue to capitalise on the Gulf ’s rich energy resources and Pacific Asia’s massive energy needs, but will also seek to develop strong non-hydrocarbon bilateral trade, will facilitate sizeable sovereign wealth investments in both directions and will provide lucrative opportunities for experienced Pacific Asia construction companies, their technologies, and – in China’s case – its vast labour force.