Donald Trump calls Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally in boost to MBS

President Donald Trump said he would formally designate Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally in a further strengthening of ties between the two countries, capping a day of dealmaking between the US leader and the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“I’m pleased to announce that we’re taking our military cooperation to even greater heights,” Trump said at a White House dinner in honour of the 40-year-old royal. This is “very important to them,” he added.

The designation for nations with close strategic relationships with the US provides financing and priority access for purchases of certain military equipment, as well as the ability to participate in joint research efforts. Saudi Arabia will become the 20th ally designated under the status, joining other nations in the Middle East, including Egypt, Israel, and Qatar.

MBS, as Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader is known, was joined by prominent executives and celebrities, including Elon Musk and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, at the Tuesday evening event, with Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and FIFA President Gianni Infantino are also in attendance. Other guests, including Citigroup Inc.’s Jane Fraser, Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang, and investor Bill Ackman, were served a menu featuring a rack of lamb at long tables laden with candles and flowers.

Trump had earlier lavished praise on MBS during a gilded welcome to the Oval Office, calling the prince a “very good friend of mine” and absolving him of the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The pair agreed to a loosely worded defence cooperation pact that includes the future sale of F-35 advanced fighter jets to the oil-rich kingdom, while the US agreed to formalise negotiations on help with a Saudi civil-nuclear programme.

The White House visit and deals, which included a vague Saudi pledge to increase investment in the US to $1 trillion from $600 billion previously, are important wins for the Crown Prince. Until a few years ago, he was shunned by many longstanding Western allies — including, briefly, Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden — over the Khashoggi murder in Istanbul.

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Trump and MBS have developed a warm rapport since early in the US president’s first term, and the next phase of the relationship has ramifications for the geopolitical balance of the Middle East. However, deals are yet to be struck over issues including the normalisation of Saudi Arabia’s relations with Israel, a long-held goal of Washington’s that’s been derailed by Israel’s two-year war with Hamas in Gaza.

That conflict is now in a state of uneasy ceasefire, following a deal brokered by Trump’s administration in October.

“We have a very different Middle East since I came to office,” Trump said. “It’s day and night.”

The US and Saudi Arabia have agreed to a deal on artificial intelligence, Trump said, following tense negotiations over the kingdom’s desire to have access to advanced chips. While nothing was formally announced on Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said the US has agreed to green-light deliveries of the technology to the Saudi Arabian firm Humain.

On the eve of the Israel-Hamas conflict in 2023, MBS was close to signing a broad deal with the US that would have involved Saudi Arabia recognising Israel and receiving American security guarantees. The onset of the war in Gaza stalled those talks, with the Saudis insisting Israel needs to accept Palestinian statehood as a condition.

MBS’s visit to the White House also follows Trump’s own trip to Saudi Arabia in May as part of a Gulf tour that included neighbouring Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. At the time, Trump, who was accompanied by more than 30 US business leaders, said $1 trillion of deals—including many related to AI chips and data centres — were signed during his stay in Riyadh. Later, the White House said it was closer to $600 billion.