Trump Announces $142 Billion Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia
The U.S. President is embarking on a four-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar with a $1 trillion wish-list.
Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince have signed a strategic partnership deal in Riyadh to deepen economic and military ties, on the first leg of the U.S. president’s first major overseas trip since returning to the White House.
Trump and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, signed a $600 investment pledged aimed at increasing cooperation between the two nations, the White House announced. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
It includes an arms deal worth nearly $142bn, including “state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen US defence firms.”
“The deals celebrated today are historic and transformative for both countries and represent a new golden era of partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” the White House said in a statement.
A partnership between Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior and the FBI has also been included in Tuesday’s signed agreements.
Ahead of the signing, Trump attended a VIP lunch at the lavish Saudi Royal Court alongside other high profile guests including Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO who is leading the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Musk, who previously said he would significantly reduce the amount of time spent on DOGE from May, still appears to be a prominent figure in the Trump Administration.
Other key U.S. business figures including Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink were also present for coffee and lunch in Riyadh.
Trump is expected to attend a dinner with MBS later on Tuesday, as well as a U.S.-Saudi investment event. MBS pledged in January to invest $600 billion in the U.S., and Trump reportedly has a $1 trillion wishlist.
Earlier in the day, Saudi fighter jets escorted Air Force One through the kingdom’s airspace. When Trump stepped off the Royal Terminal for V.I.P.s at King Khalid International Airport, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman greeted him on a lavender carpet unfurled across the tarmac.
Elizabeth Dent, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank, told TIME that among the investment deals expected is “$100 billion worth of U.S. defense sales.”
“There is also the potential for a civil-nuclear deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, which was long tied to the possibility of Saudi-Israel normalization but has recently been decoupled,” she added.
Read More: Why Trump and the Saudis Are Cozying Up
Experts including Dent have touted the potential deals as a boon to Saudi plans to diversify its economy away from oil under its Vision 2030.
While in Saudi Arabia, Trump is expected to attend a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit. Here, more diplomatic issues will be discussed, including working toward an end to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, plus talks on a possible nuclear deal with Iran.
Later in the week, Trump will visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to discuss other diplomatic and investment deals. This week, the President said he plans to accept a luxury jet as a gift from Qatar, which has legal and constitutional concerns.
Trump’s first overseas trip in his previous term was to the Middle East. The expectation was the same would happen now that he has returned to the White House. But Trump traveled abroad earlier last month to attend the funeral of Pope Francis.
In May 2017, Trump attended the Arab-Islamic-American summit in Riyadh, where regional leaders came together to discuss security and terrorism issues. Investment between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia was a key outcome of the visit, as is expected for this week’s trip.
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