{"id":74206,"date":"2025-05-13T13:30:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=74206"},"modified":"2025-05-13T13:30:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:30:49","slug":"trump-starts-gulf-visit-seeking-big-economic-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/world\/trump-starts-gulf-visit-seeking-big-economic-deals\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump starts Gulf visit seeking big economic deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

RIYADH (REUTERS): US President Donald Trump<\/a> arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to start a four-day swing through the Gulf region, focusing more on economic deals than security crises ranging from war in Gaza<\/a> to the threat of escalation\u00a0over Iran\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n

\n

With a who\u2019s who of powerful American business leaders in tow, including Tesla CEO and Trump adviser Elon Musk, he will first visit Riyadh, site of a Saudi-US Investment Forum, and go to Qatar on Wednesday and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, but is not visiting\u00a0Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile energy remains a cornerstone of our relationship, the investments and business opportunities in the kingdom have expanded and multiplied many, many times over,\u201d Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih said as he opened the forum.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result \u2026 when Saudis and Americans join forces, very good things happen, more often than not great things happen when those joint ventures happen,\u201d he said before Trump\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

The Saudi-US investment forum began with a video showing soaring eagles and falcons, celebrating the long history between the United States and the kingdom.<\/p>\n

At the front of a palatial hall sat Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, Stephen A. Schwartzman, CEO of Blackstone, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan and Khalid.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a forum panel as Trump touched down in Riyadh, Fink said he had visited Saudi Arabia more than 65 times over 20 years. He said the kingdom had been a follower when he first started visiting but was now \u201ctaking control\u201d and broadening its economy out of its\u00a0oil base.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia and the US have maintained strong ties for decades based on an ironclad arrangement in which the kingdom delivers oil and the superpower provides security.<\/p>\n

Saudi F-15 fighter jets appeared on both sides of Air Force One, cruising along in close proximity to accompany Trump into the kingdom, according to a pool report from a\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0reporter.<\/p>\n

Trump has also said he may travel on Thursday to Turkey for potential\u00a0face-to-face\u00a0talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s second foreign trip since returning to the presidency \u2014 his first was to Rome for Pope Francis\u2019\u00a0funeral\u00a0\u2014 comes at a time of geopolitical tension.<\/p>\n

In addition to pressing for a settlement in Ukraine, his administration is pushing for a new aid mechanism for Gaza after 19 months of war and urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree on a new ceasefire deal there.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, US and Iranian negotiators met in Oman to discuss a\u00a0potential deal\u00a0to curb Tehran\u2019s nuclear program. Trump has threatened military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.<\/p>\n

Apart from the possible Turkey side trip, those matters are not the focus of Trump\u2019s Middle East swing as now scheduled.<\/p>\n

The United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE are expected to announce investments that could run into the trillions. Saudi Arabia already committed in January to $600 billion\u00a0in investments in the United States over the next four years, but Trump has said he will ask for a full trillion.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are traveling with the president.<\/p>\n

Trump is expected to offer Saudi Arabia an\u00a0arms package\u00a0worth more than $100bn, sources told\u00a0Reuters<\/em>. This could include a range of advanced weapons, including C-130 transport aircraft.<\/p>\n

The US and Saudi Arabia are expected to avoid the topic of normalisation between Riyadh and Israel altogether, sources told\u00a0Reuters<\/em>, even as it is Trump\u2019s most enduring geopolitical goal in the region.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said last week he expected progress imminently on expanding the Abraham Accords, a set of deals brokered by Trump in his first term by which Arab states including the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco recognised Israel.<\/p>\n

But opposition by Netanyahu to a permanent stop to the war in Gaza or to the creation of a Palestinian state makes progress on similar talks with Riyadh unlikely, sources told\u00a0Reuters.<\/em><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s second and third stops, in Qatar and the UAE, are similarly expected to focus on economic issues.<\/p>\n

Qatar\u2019s royal family is expected to gift Trump a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane to be outfitted for use as Air Force One, an arrangement that has drawn scrutiny from ethics experts.<\/p>\n

Trump is expected to donate the plane to his presidential library for use after his term ends.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RIYADH (REUTERS): US President Donald Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to start a four-day swing through the Gulf region, focusing more on economic deals than security crises ranging from war in Gaza to the threat of escalation\u00a0over Iran\u2019s nuclear programme. With a who\u2019s who of powerful American business leaders in tow, including Tesla […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":74208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[184,28672],"class_list":["post-74206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-donald-trump","tag-gulf-visit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74209,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74206\/revisions\/74209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}