During his recent visits to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran, President Xi Jinping proposed building a stable energy community. In an article for the Saudi media, Xi pointed out that China and Saudi Arabia should expand the scale of bilateral trade, and build a long-term and stable "energy cooperation community".

Such an energy cooperation community not only shows the core goal of Xi's visit, but also makes clear China's national energy strategy during the period of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).

With China's rapid economic development and the United States reducing its dependency on Middle East oil, China has gradually replaced the US as the biggest consumer of oil from the region. Thus Middle East countries are paying greater attention to building strategic partnerships with China. Establishing a stable energy cooperation community is of great significance not only to China and the Middle East, but also to the global energy order.