From Energy Partners to Political Allies: Investigating Qatar and China's Changing Bilateral Dynamics

samer Mohammad alhajjat; Mohammad Reevany Bustami

doi:10.35516/Hum.2026.8740

Authors

samer Mohammad alhajjat Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7503-4077
Mohammad Reevany Bustami Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2021-1193

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35516/Hum.2026.8740

Keywords:

Political Distance, Qatar-Chinese Relations, Foreign Policy, Belt and Road Initiative, political proximity

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimes to identify the general trends in the development of Qatar-Chinese relations after 2013 at the level of economic and energy cooperation, and to investigate the statistical impact of the development of bilateral cooperation relations at those levels on the reality of the political distance between Qatar and China during the period 2013-2022. The study tries to answer the following key question: Did the growth of Qatari - Chinese relations in the areas of general economic cooperation and cooperation in energy and natural gas after 2013, that is, after China launched the Belt and Road Initiative, lead to a reduction in the political distance between the two parties?

Methods: The study used both the descriptive-statistical approach and the general trends approach,

Results: The study found that increasing pace of the general acceleration in economic and energy cooperation relations between Qatar and China after 2013 and following China's launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, the pace of political rapprochement between the two parties began to increase, and the political distance between them began to gradually shrink.

Conclusions: The study found that the concluded that the Qatar-Chinese strategic partnership is likely to experience several prerequisites in the coming years, contributing to the transfer of the strategic partnership to the level of a strategic alliance.

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