Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman landed yesterday in Washington, DC, to a lavish reception by President Donald Trump that saw red carpets, a flyover of F-35 jets, and a Fall-themed dinner at the White House’s East Room attended by the world’s richest man Elon Musk, and the world’s richest footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.

A flurry of agreements were signed during the visit, including a strategic defense agreement approving the long-awaited sale of F-35 jets, and a formal pathway to a nuclear agreement. The Crown Prince also upped the Kingdom’s investment pledge in the US to a whopping USD 1 tn investment commitment, and expressed interest in joining the Abraham Accords conditional on a two-state solution for Palestine.

DEFENSE-

The Crown Prince and Trump signed the US-Saudi Strategic Defense Agreement, facilitating access for US defense firms into Saudi Arabia and securing “burden-sharing” funds from the Kingdom. Trump also approved a defense sale package that included future deliveries of the long-anticipated F-35 jets, alongside an agreement to sell nearly 300 US tanks. Financial details were not disclosed, but F-35s are not cheap: the package will surely amount to multi USD bns.

Top of the line: Trump said the US will not be downgrading F-35s heading to Saudi, a departure from the so-called “ qualitative military edge ” policy to ensure Israel’s military superiority in the region. “They’d like you to get planes of reduced caliber. I don’t think that makes you too happy,” he told Bin Salman, adding that both Saudi and Israel are both great allies and “at a level where they should get top of the line.”

Not quite cleared for takeoff: The sale could still face resistance despite Trump’s green light. Pentagon officials are reportedly raising concerns that Riyadh’s military ties with China could compromise sensitive US stealth technology, which could create conditions similar to those that blocked th advanced aircraft’s sales to Turkey in 2019 and to the UAE under the Biden administration, Bloomberg reports.

Elevating the partnership: The President later said at the East Room dinner that Saudi Arabia has been designated as a major non-Nato ally (MNNA) of the US. Countries designated as a MNNA — including Qatar, Egypt and Israel — get financing and priority access for military equipment and can participate in joint research efforts.

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UPPING INVESTMENTS-

The Crown Prince and Trump finalized agreements building on the USD 600 bn commitment secured back during Trump’s Riyadh visit in May, according to a White House fact sheet. Bin Salman also vowed during the press conference to increase Saudi’s commitments to USD 1 tn, citing the Kingdom’s “huge demand” for computing power and desire to acquire US-made chips.

More details on Saudi’s investments are to be unveiled at the US-Saudi investment forum, scheduled for later today at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and expected to include senior executives from major oil, tech, pharma, defense, VC, and investment management firms. The guest list will reportedly include execs from Chevron, Qualcomm, Cisco, General Dynamics, Pfizer, IBM, Google, Salesforce, Andreessen Horowitz, Halliburton, Adobe, State Street, and Parsons, along with our own Aramco, unnamed sources told Reuters.

ENERGY, MINERALS & AI-

A step closer to a nuclear agreement: The two sides signed a joint declaration formalizing negotiations on civil nuclear energy cooperation, ensuring Saudi gives priority to US companies in nuclear partnerships, as well as maintaining compliance with the nonproliferation treaty.

A critical minerals framework was also signed, where the US and Saudi will cooperate on securing supply chains for uranium, metals, permanent magnets, and other critical minerals through “two-way investment” in the sector, according to the US Treasury department.

ALSO- An MoU on AI will give the Kingdom “access to world-leading American systems while protecting US technology from foreign influence.” No details are available as of yet, but unnamed sources told Bloomberg that the PIF’s AI champion Humain already got the greenlight for deliveries of advanced AI chips.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS-

Bin Salman talked about normalization prospects with Israel, saying that Saudi is interested in joining the Abraham Accords but wants first to secure a clear path towards the two-state solution. Both the Crown Prince and Trump signaled some progress was made on the talks without providing further details or a timeline.

Saudi could sit on Gaza’s transitional board: Trump later said he wants the Crown Prince to join the Board of Peace that was approved by the UN Security Council on Monday to oversee reconstruction and economic recovery of Gaza. “You’ll accept, I hope,” Trump said to Bin Salman at the East Room dinner.

The US press also zeroed in on remarks on the Khashoggi affair by Bin Salman and Trump, as well as the former’s remarks about Bin Laden “using the Saudi people” to sabotage US-Saudi relations by orchestrating the 11 September attacks.

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