Saudi crown prince welcomes Trump to kingdom as he begins Middle East tour
President Donald Trump opened his four-day Mideast trip on Tuesday by paying a visit to Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for talks on US efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear programme, end the war in Gaza, hold down oil prices and more.
Prince Mohammed warmly greeted Mr Trump as he stepped off Air Force One and kicked off his Middle East tour.
The two leaders then retreated to a grand hall at the Riyadh airport, where Trump and his aides were served traditional Arabic coffee by waiting attendants wearing ceremonial gun-belts.
The pomp began before Mr Trump even landed.
Mr Trump and Prince Mohammed also took part in a lunch at the Royal Court, gathering with guests and aides in an ornate room with blue accents and massive crystal chandeliers.
As he greeted business titans with Mr Trump by his side, Prince Mohammed was animated and smiling.
It was a stark contrast to his awkward fist bump with then-President Joe Biden, who looked to avoid being seen on camera shaking hands with the prince during a 2022 visit to the kingdom.
Mr Biden had decided to pay a visit to Saudi Arabia as he looked to alleviate soaring prices at the pump for motorists at home and around the globe.
But that dark moment appeared to be distant memory for the prince as he rubbed elbows with high-profile business executives — including Blackstone Group chief executive Stephen Schwarzman, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink and Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk — in front of the cameras and with Mr Trump by his side.
Later, the crown prince will fete Mr Trump with a formal dinner and, later on Tuesday, the president is slated to take part later in a US-Saudi investment conference.
Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih said: “When Saudis and Americans join forces, very good things happen — more often than not, great things happen.”
Saudi Arabia and fellow OPEC+ nations have already helped their cause with Mr Trump early in his second term by stepping up oil production.
Mr Trump sees cheap energy as a key component to lowering costs and stemming inflation for Americans.
But Saudi Arabia’s economy remains heavily dependent on oil, and the kingdom needs a fiscal break-even oil price of 96 dollars to 98 US dollars a barrel to balance its budget.
It’s questionable how long OPEC+, of which Saudi Arabia is the leading member, is willing to keep production elevated.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude closed Monday at 64.77 dollars.
Mr Trump picked the kingdom for his first stop because it has pledged to make big investments in the US, but Mr Trump ended up travelling to Italy last month for Pope Francis’s funeral.
The three countries on the president’s itinerary — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — are all places where the Trump Organisation, run by Mr Trump’s two elder sons, is developing major real estate projects.
They include a high-rise tower in Jeddah, a luxury hotel in Dubai and a golf course and villa complex in Qatar.
Mr Trump is trying to demonstrate that his transactional strategy for international politics is paying dividends as he faces criticism from Democrats who say his global tariff war and approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine are isolating the United States from allies.
He is expected to announce deals with the three wealthy countries that will touch on artificial intelligence, expanding energy co-operation and perhaps new arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
The administration earlier this month announced initial approval to sell 3.5 billion dollars worth of air-to-air missiles for Saudi Arabia’s fighter jets.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has said he will decide during the trip how the US government will refer to the body of water now commonly known as the Persian Gulf.
He told reporters that he expects his hosts will ask him about the US officially calling the waterway the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia.
Abbas Aragachi, the Iranian foreign minister, has warned that changing how the US refers to the waterway would compel the “wrath of all Iranians from all walks of life and political persuasion in Iran, the US and across the world”.