Dubai: China will step up its influence over the Middle East in the coming years as it dependence on imported oil, particularly from the Gulf, increases, a Singapore government policy adviser has said.

China is already the biggest importer of Middle East oil, according to the Brookings Institute, sustaining its burgeoning economy.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a growth rate of 7.6 per cent for the Chinese economy this year.

Bilahari Kausikan, Policy Adviser at the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said China can no longer afford to distance itself from the geopolitics of the Gulf.

He said that China has attempted to shy away from regional politics in effort to shield its economic investments from potential repercussions.

Kausikan was speaking on ‘Insights on Strategic Developments and Political Risk in Asia’ at an event held in Dubai on Tuesday.

The United States, however, has played an active role in regional politics for many decades. The US has close relations with all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the Navy’s 5th fleet is stationed in Bahrain.

But the US is becoming less dependent on imported oil because of heavy investments in its own domestic production capabilities.

However, Kausikan, who is also an Ambassador-at-Large, said the US will not step away from the region, even as China steps up, because its allies will still rely on energy exports.

The US also plays a role in seeing oil flows securely out of the Arabian Gulf. Kausikan said this works for China but that in the long term it will not allow such an important commodity to be controlled by its rival.

Saudi Arabia has been China’s largest crude supplier for the past decade and in 2012 provided China with one fifth of its crude oil demands at almost 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the Brookings Institute.

In a sign of the increasing closeness between the two countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, last month.

Kausikan said that while a scenario in which China exerts its influence over the Middle East would not lead to conflict with the Arab states, it will further complicate geopolitics.

Ultimately, he said that the US and China have similar interests in the Gulf but that the two countries are unlikely to agree on a regional policy.