The Effect of Third Parties in China-Israeli Relations

The Belt and Road Initiative announced by Xi Jinping during his visit to Kazakhstan in 2013 is at the heart of China’s foreign policy. Israel, on the other hand, is the central country connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, creating an alternative to Egypt for the Belt and Road Initiative. Today, within the scope of this project, China has undertaken many infrastructure and superstructure projects alongside with purchasing and partnering with some companies in Israel. Furthermore, Israel has another importance for China in terms of diversifying energy imports in the Middle East with the natural gas reserves discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean recently. However, more importantly, Israel has advanced technology. In addition to supporting its economic development with technology, China wants to improve its military technology. For Israel, the rising power of China has great importance for developing good relations with China, both economically and politically, in terms of reducing Israel’s dependence on the West. For these reasons, China-Israel relations are better off than ever before. China and Israel’s good relations have disturbed the US, which is the protecting power of Israel in the Middle East. As in the past, the US objections to the projects carried out by China in Israel within the scope of the Belt and Road, again give rise to the future of the relations between the two countries being questioned. In this study, the negative effects of the USA and Arab countries on Chinese-Israeli relations since the two countries were established will be analyzed from a historical perspective.