- Wednesday, May 14, 2025
The US agreed to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion – “the largest defense cooperation agreement” Washington has ever done
By: India Weekly
SAUDI ARABIA has promised around $600 billion in deals with the United States, from defense to artificial intelligence, as it threw a lavish welcome for president Donald Trump on the first state visit of his second term.
Trump returned the favor by moving on a key Saudi policy request by announcing a lifting of sanctions on Syria.
As he emerged from Air Force One, he punched in the air and was greeted by prince Mohammed bin Salman, who later signed an agreement with the president in Riyadh on energy, defense, mining and other areas.
The Saudis escorted Air Force One into the kingdom with fighter jets before bringing out long-stretching guards of honor and sending flag-waving cavalry to accompany Trump’s motorcade to the palace.
Under imposing chandeliers, Trump welcomed a promise by prince Salman, who effectively rules the kingdom due to King Salman’s frail health, for $600 billion in investment and quipped that it should be $1 trillion.
“Today we hope for investment opportunities worth $600 billion, including deals worth $300 billion that were signed during this forum,” the Saudi crown prince said in a speech during a US-Saudi Investment Forum session held in Riyadh.
“We will work in the coming months on the second phase to complete deals and raise it to $1 trillion,” he said.
Business leaders at the investment forum included Larry Fink, the CEO of asset management firm BlackRock; Stephen A. Schwartzman, CEO of asset manager Blackstone; and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk chatted briefly with both Trump and the crown prince during a palace reception for the US president.
And joining Trump for a lunch with the prince were top U.S. businessmen including Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The US agreed to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion, according to a White House fact sheet that called it “the largest defense cooperation agreement” Washington has ever done.
The agreement covers deals with more than a dozen US defense companies in areas including air and missile defense, air force and space advancement, maritime security and communications, the fact sheet said.
“We have the biggest business leaders in the world here today and they’re going to walk away with a lot of cheques,” Trump told the prince.
For “the United States, it’s probably two million jobs that we’re talking about,” Trump said.
The White House said that Saudi company DataVolt will invest $20 billion in artificial intelligence-related sites in the United States, while tech firms including Google will invest in both countries – welcome news for Saudi Arabia which has faced restrictions on US advanced technology.
The US leader will also visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, fellow oil-rich Arab monarchies with long-standing ties to the United States – and to Trump.
In choosing Saudi Arabia for his first state visit, as he did in his previous term, the 78-year-old billionaire was again bypassing traditional presidential stops among Western allies, some of which have been unnerved by his norms-shattering diplomacy.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said last week he expected progress imminently on expanding accords brokered by Trump in his 2017-21 first term under which Arab states, including the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, recognized Israel.
Trump said it was his “fervent hope” that Saudi Arabia would soon sign its own normalization agreement with Israel, adding, “But you’ll do it in your own time.”
Saudi Arabia has said it cannot follow the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which all normalized relations with Israel during Trump’s first term, without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
As Trump was in the region, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the army would enter Gaza again “with full force” against Hamas militants, more than two months after Israel cut off all food and other supplies.
The United States, which has quietly been frustrated with Israel, negotiated directly with Hamas to secure the release of a hostage with US citizenship, Edan Alexander, to whom Trump spoke by telephone Tuesday.
Trump’s embrace of the Saudis contrasts with a more hesitant initial approach by former president Joe Biden, who had vowed to punish the crown prince after US intelligence found that he ordered the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Since Khashoggi’s gruesome killing, the crown prince has worked aggressively to change Saudi Arabia’s image, from easing restrictions on women to diversifying from oil to new areas such as artificial intelligence.
“Saudi Arabia has proved the critics totally wrong,” Trump said at an investment forum as the crown prince, at his constant side throughout the day, beamed.
Complimenting the gleaming skyscrapers in the desert capital, Trump said: “The transformation that has occurred under the leadership of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed has been truly extraordinary.”
“I’ve never seen anything at that scale happen before,” he said.
Trump announced, in response to appeals from the crown prince and Turkey but breaking with ally Israel, that he would ease US sanctions on Syria, ruled by Islamists since the toppling of the iron-fisted Bashar al-Assad in December.
He met with Syria’s president in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday (14) and urged him to normalize ties with longtime foe Israel, after a surprise US announcement that it would lift all sanctions on the Islamist-led government.
Trump met Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa, who once pledged allegiance to al Qaeda and swept to power at the head of a group that Washington has called a terrorist organisation, before a summit between the United States and Gulf Arab countries.
He urged Sharaa to join the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which normalized relations with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020, the White House press secretary posted on X.
Trump said he thought Syria would join at some point, according to a Washington Post pool report.
“I think they have to get themselves straightened up. I told him, ‘I hope you’re going to join when it’s straightened out.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ But they have a lot of work to do,” said Trump.
Photos posted on Saudi state television showed them shaking hands in the presence of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince.
Trump’s Middle East trip has fuelled doubts in Israel about where the country stands in Washington’s priorities.
The U.S. exploring the possibility of normalising ties with Syria, one of Israel’s biggest longstanding foes, and holding nuclear talks with its other enemy Iran has sidelined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies in the government.
Israel considers Iran’s nuclear program “an existential threat” and does not trust Syria’s new Islamist president.
Trump heads on Wednesday (14) to Qatar, which has offered a luxury Boeing aircraft for Trump to refurbish as Air Force One and then keep after he leaves the White House.
Trump’s Democratic rivals have called the gift blatant corruption. Trump has hit back that the deal was “very public and transparent”.
Jon Alterman, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that for Trump, the Gulf “is his happy place”.
The leaders will “flatter him and not criticize him. And they’ll treat his family members as past and future business partners,” he said. (Agencies)
