II. The Rise of Gulf–Asian Common Strategic Interests

While the relationship between the GCC and Western countries began to decrease economically and politically, the region increasingly attracted energy-hungry Asian powers – primarily China, India, Japan and South Korea – looking for oil and gas resources required to sustain their growth. Researchers have acknowledged this shift of energy markets towards Asian economies, but so far have tended to downplay its political meaning by focusing on its purely economic logic and modest strategic dimension. Two legitimate arguments are highlighted in the scholarship. First, as the previous chapter underlined, in the near future the network of US military bases in the Gulf is unlikely to be dismantled, and defence agreements with Washington will continue to shape the security policies of GCC members. Second, Asian countries appear reluctant to develop a geopolitical posture far from their territories. Although strategic thinkers in Washington continue to support the political gain of US global commitments, there is no such ambition in India or China. The former remains trapped in its local conflict with Pakistan and seems unable to project power at the global level, while the latter insisted until recently on the purely economic nature of its diplomacy – the so-called ‘China’s peaceful rise’ – to tone down speculation of Chinese hegemonic aspirations. Because of their inability or their unwillingness to play a global role, those countries were therefore portrayed as ‘free riders’,