Biden to ‘strengthen a strategic partnership’ during Saudi Arabia visit

The president has abandoned efforts to ostracise Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Joe Biden leaves St Edmund’s Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, at the weekend. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden has said he aims to “strengthen a strategic partnership” with Saudi Arabia during a visit there this week, but added he will hold true to “fundamental American values”.

“I know that there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia. My views on human rights are clear and longstanding, and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad, as they will be during this trip,” the US President wrote in an opinion piece for The Washington Post published overnight on Saturday.

While Mr Biden is expected to press for increased Saudi oil production in the hope of taming spiralling fuel costs and inflation at home, his visit signals a shift: an apparent abandoning of efforts to ostracise the kingdom’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, over the horrific murder of a dissident.

As a presidential candidate, Mr Biden said the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi – a Saudi-born US resident known for writing critical articles about the kingdom’s rulers for The Washington Post – had made the country a “pariah”. US intelligence findings released by the Biden administration identified Mohammed, known as MBS, as mastermind of the operation.

Last month Mr Biden had sought to distance himself from the upcoming encounter, stressing he was going to meet with King Salman and his team. But the White House confirmed last week he will meet MBS as part of that larger delegation during the trip.

“As president, it is my job to keep our country strong and secure,” Mr Biden wrote in The Washington Post. “We have to counter Russia’s aggression, put ourselves in the best possible position to outcompete China, and work for greater stability in a consequential region of the world.

“To do these things, we have to engage directly with countries that can impact those outcomes. Saudi Arabia is one of them, and when I meet with Saudi leaders on Friday, my aim will be to strengthen a strategic partnership going forward that’s based on mutual interests and responsibilities, while also holding true to fundamental American values.”

Mr Biden will also visit Israel and the West Bank during his July 13-16 trip, which he wrote will “start a new and more promising chapter of America’s engagement” in the Middle East. He said the region was “more stable and secure” than when he took over the presidency in January 2021, citing in particular recent thaws in relations between Israel and some Arab nations.

He touched on the Iran nuclear deal, agreed with world powers in 2015 but abandoned by Donald Trump three years later. “My administration will continue to increase diplomatic and economic pressure until Iran is ready to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, as I remain prepared to do,” Mr Biden wrote.

AFP