RIYADH: US President Donald Trump secured a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to invest in the United States after the oil power accorded him a gala welcome at the start of a tour of Gulf states.

Trump punched the air as he emerged from Air Force One to be greeted by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who later signed an agreement with the president in Riyadh on energy, defence, mining and other areas.

The US agreed to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142bn, according to a White House fact sheet that called it “the largest defense cooperation agreement” Washington has ever done.

The agreement covers deals with more than a dozen US defence companies in areas including air and missile defense, air force and space advancement, maritime security and communications, the fact sheet said.

“Today we hope for investment opportunities worth $600bn, including deals worth $300bn that were signed during this forum,” the Saudi crown prince said in a speech during a US-Saudi Investment Forum session held in Riyadh on the occasion of Trump’s visit.

“We will work in the coming months on the second phase to complete deals and raise it to $1 trillion,” he said.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest customers for US arms.

Reuters reported in April the US was poised to offer the kingdom an arms package worth well over $100bn.

“I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said during a meeting with the crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler.

The US and Saudi Arabia had discussed Riyadh’s potential purchase of Lockheed F-35 jets, two sources briefed on discussions told Reuters, referring to a military aircraft that the kingdom is long thought to have been interested in.

It was not immediately clear whether those aircraft were covered in the deal announced on Tuesday.

Trump, who was accompanied by US business leaders including billionaire Elon Musk, will go on from Riyadh to Qatar on Wednesday and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

He has not scheduled a stop in Israel, a decision that has raised questions about where the close ally stands in Washington’s priorities, and the focus of the trip is on investment rather than security matters in the Middle East.

“While energy remains a cornerstone of our relationship, the investments and business opportunities in the kingdom have expanded and multiplied many, many times over,” Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih told the US-Saudi investment forum.

“As a result ... when Saudis and Americans join forces very good things happen, more often than not great things happen when those joint ventures happen,” he said before Trump’s arrival.

Trump told the investment forum that relations with Saudi Arabia will be even stronger. He was shown speaking with Riyadh’s sovereign wealth fund governor Yaser al-Rumayyan, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, and Falih as he toured a hall that showed off models for the kingdoms flashy, multi-billion-dollar development projects.

Trump called the Saudi crown prince a friend and said they have a good relationship, according to a pool report from the Wall Street Journal, adding that Saudi investment would help create jobs.

Big investments

Business leaders at the investment forum included Larry Fink, the CEO of asset management firm BlackRock; Stephen A. Schwartzman, CEO of asset manager Blackstone; and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Musk chatted briefly with both Trump and the crown prince, who is otherwise known as MBS, during a palace reception for the US president. And joining Trump for a lunch with MBS were top US businessmen including Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Syria sanctions lifted

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would lift sanctions on Syria to offer it a chance for “greatness” after Bashar al-Assad’s fall, as he cast himself as a peacemaker in the Middle East.

On a state visit to Saudi Arabia primarily aimed at securing billions of dollars of investment, the billionaire president took aim both at the US left and right who he said had intervened in the region in the guise of “nation builders” but “wrecked far more nations than they built”.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2025