Dubai: The White House announced a huge arms deal with Saudi Arabia on Saturday as President Donald Trump took his first steps on the world stage.
The $110 billion deal for Saudi purchases of US defence equipment and services came at the start of an eight-day foreign tour that will also take Trump to occupied Jerusalem, the Vatican and meetings with leaders in Europe.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said deals worth in excess of a record $380 billion were signed during Trump’s visit. “That was a tremendous day. Tremendous investments in the United States,” Trump said at talks with Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz.
“Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs.”
White House spokesman Sean Spicer hailed the defence agreement as the “largest single arms deal in US history”.
“This package of defence equipment and services supports the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of Iranian threats,” a White House official said.
As well as the talks with Salman, Trump was to meet the kingdom’s two crown princes on Saturday, before giving a speech on Islam to leaders of Muslim countries on Sunday.
For Riyadh the visit is an opportunity to rebuild ties with a key ally, strained under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama who Gulf states suspected of a tilt towards Iran.
Sunday’s speech to dozens of Muslim leaders has been touted as a major event — along the lines of a landmark address to the Islamic world given by Obama in Cairo in 2009.
While most US presidents make their first foreign trip to neighbouring Canada or Mexico, 70-year-old Trump has opted instead for the Middle East and Europe.
He travels to Israel and the Palestinian Territories tomorrow and on Tuesday, and then to the Vatican and to Brussels and Italy for NATO and G7 meetings. After meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Trump will see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, part of his efforts to revive the long-stagnant peace process.
On Tuesday Trump heads to Rome to meet with Pope Francis. The two men are at odds on everything from climate change to refugee policy, although the pontiff says he will give the US leader an open-minded hearing.
— With inputs from Agencies
