US President Donald Trump has arrived in Riyadh on the first leg of his four-day tour to West Asia as he seeks to secure as much as $1 trillion in Saudi investments.
Trump was welcomed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the King Khalid International Airport in the capital on Tuesday morning.
Saudi Arabia is the first stop of Trump’s first major overseas trip in his second term as the US president.
Reports say Trump is expected to sign agreements worth more than $1 trillion during his visit to the oil-rich Persian Gulf state.
The deals include investments in artificial intelligence companies and energy production, as well as arms purchases from American weapons manufacturers, according to the reports.
Earlier reports said the US is no longer demanding Saudi Arabia normalize ties with Israel as a condition for progress on nuclear cooperation talks with the kingdom.
“The Trump administration wants this trip to be a big deal. That means lots of splashy deal announcements and collaborations that can be sold as being good for America,” said Robert Mogielnicki, senior resident scholar at the Arab Persian Gulf States Institute in Washington.
“Normalizing ties with Israel is a much heavier lift than rolling out the red carpet for President Trump and announcing investment deals.”
In 2017, Trump chose Saudi Arabia as his first foreign destination, where he secured $450 billion of investments in the US.
The tour will also take Trump to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
In Qatar, Trump is expected to receive a luxury $400 million Boeing 747 to be used as America’s Air Force One presidential plane.
“They’re giving us a gift,” Trump said on Monday, noting that he would be “a stupid person” if he did not accept it.
US Congressman Ritchie Torres called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate, saying the plane could “constitute the most valuable gift ever conferred on a president by a foreign government”.
“This ‘flying grift’ is merely the latest chapter in a tawdry tale of presidential profiteering unprecedented in American history,” he added.
Source: Press TV
