US President Donald Trump warmly welcomed Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to a lavish reception on Tuesday, his first visit to the White House in more than seven years.
The welcome ceremony included a military flyover and a thunderous salute from the US Marine band.
Technically, this is not a state visit, as the crown prince is not the head of state. But Prince Mohammed has taken over the day-to-day governance of his father, King Salman, 89, who has suffered health problems in recent years.
The president hosted Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, who is seeking to deepen ties with Washington and further rehabilitate his global image following the 2018 killing of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi is likely to be an afterthought as the two leaders unveil billion-dollar transactions and meet with advisers to discuss the difficult road ahead in the volatile Middle East, the AP reported.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that bin Salman approved the capture or killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. But Prince Mohammed, for his part, denies any involvement in the killing of Khashoggi, a citizen of Saudi Arabia and a resident of Virginia.
Talks between the two leaders are expected to boost security ties, civil nuclear cooperation and multi-billion dollar trade deals with the kingdom. But there is unlikely to be any major breakthrough in normalizing Saudi relations with Israel, despite Trump’s push for such a breakthrough.
“President Trump believes that all these steps are increasingly binding the Saudis to us on a number of issues, from security to the finance-AI-energy relationship. He wants them to tie up with us and not China on these issues,” Reuters quoted former US Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross as saying.
A senior administration official said the United States and Saudi Arabia are expected to announce deals on defense sales, civilian nuclear energy cooperation and a multibillion-dollar investment in U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure.
