RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promised on Thursday to pile $600 billion into US trade and investments as he congratulated Donald Trump on his return to the White House.

Prince Mohammed, de facto leader of the world’s biggest oil exporter, made the pledge in a phone call following Trump’s inauguration on Monday, state media said.

Trump forged close relations with Riyadh in his first term and is now expected to push Saudi Arabia towards normalising ties with Israel as a major foreign policy objective.

“The crown prince affirmed the kingdom’s intention to broaden its investments and trade with the United States over the next four years, in the amount of $600 billion, and potentially beyond that,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.

It did not give details of the source of the funds, which represent more than half of Saudi GDP, or how they are expected to be used.

Prince Mohammed, 39, also passed on congratulations from his father, King Salman, during the call with Trump.

Trump’s first visit as president in 2017 was to Saudi Arabia, and this week he joked that a major financial commitment could persuade him to do the same again. “I did it with Saudi Arabia last time because they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of our product,” he said.

Trump quipped he would repeat the visit “if Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another 450 or 500 (billion dollars) — we’ll up it for all the inflation”.

In his own call with the crown prince on Thursday, new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed, among others, the benefits of the US-Saudi economic partnership and the opportunities to grow their economies in a variety of fields including AI, a spokesperson for Rubio said. Trump actively courted Saudi Arabia, long an important energy and security partner for Washington, during his first term.

When he arrived in Riyadh in 2017, he was treated to an elaborate welcome involving a sword dance and a fly-past of air force jets. Relations later cooled with Prince Mohammed faulting Trump for failing to respond more aggressively after a 2019 attack widely blamed on Iran halved the Gulf kingdom’s crude output.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2025