President Donald Trump points to a reporter as he meets Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office of the White House, on November 18, 2025, in Washington.
| Photo Credit: AP

A visit by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler to the White House for talks on Tuesday with U.S. President Donald Trump aims to deepen decades-old cooperation on oil and security while broadening ties in commerce, technology and potentially even nuclear energy.

It will be the first trip by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the U.S. since the 2018 killing of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, which caused a global uproar. U.S. intelligence concluded that MBS approved the capture or killing of Khashoggi, a prominent critic.

The Crown Prince, widely known by his initials MBS, denied ordering the operation but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.

More than seven years later, the world’s largest economy and the world’s top oil producer want to move forward.

Mr. Trump is seeking to cash in on a $600 billion Saudi investment pledge made during Mr. Trump’s visit to the kingdom in May. He steered clear of mentioning human rights concerns during that trip and is expected to do so again.

The Saudi leader is seeking security guarantees amid regional turmoil and wants access to artificial intelligence technology and progress toward a deal on a civilian nuclear programme.

“There is a page that has been turned” on Khashoggi’s killing, said Aziz Alghashian, Saudi-based lecturer of international relations at Naif Arab University for Security Sciences.

Focus on defence deal

The United States and Saudi Arabia have long had an arrangement for the kingdom to sell oil at favourable prices and for the superpower to provide security in exchange.

That equation was shaken by Washington’s failure to act when Iran struck oil installations in the kingdom in 2019. Concerns resurfaced in September, when Israel struck Doha, Qatar, in an attack it said targeted members of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In the aftermath, Mr. Trump signed a defence pact with Qatar via executive order. Many analysts, diplomats and regional officials believe the Saudis will get something similar.

Saudi Arabia has sought a defence pact ratified by the U.S. Congress in recent negotiations. But Washington has made that contingent on the kingdom normalizing ties with Israel.

Riyadh has in turn linked that to a commitment from Israel’s government, the most right-wing in its history, to Palestinian statehood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who agreed to a Trump-brokered ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza last month after two years of war, on Sunday reaffirmed his staunch opposition to Palestinian independence.

A Trump executive order on defence similar to the pact with Qatar would fall short of the defence agreement the Saudis have sought. But Alghashian said it would “be a step on the way, part of the process, not the end of the process.” A Western diplomat based in the Gulf summed up the dynamic: “Trump wants normalization and Saudi wants a full defence pact, but the circumstances don’t allow. In the end, both sides will likely get less than they want. That’s diplomacy.”

Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator for Democratic and Republican administrations now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he expects an executive order that would call for the U.S. and the Saudis “to immediately consult on what to do in response to the threat” while not committing Washington to actively come to the defence of Riyadh.

“That could run the gamut of providing a range of different assistance, replacing arms, deploying defensive missile batteries like THAAD or Patriot, deploying naval forces with a Marine unit – to actively taking part in the combat in an offensive not only defensive manner,” he said.

Deals key amid regional rivalry

Riyadh has also been pressing for deals in nuclear energy and artificial intelligence under its ambitious Vision 2030 plan to diversify its economy and strengthen its position relative to regional rivals.

Securing approval to acquire advanced computer chips would be critical to the kingdom’s plans to become a central node in global AI and to compete with the United Arab Emirates, which in June signed a U.S. multibillion-dollar data centre deal that gave it access to high-end chips.

MBS also wants to strike an agreement with Washington on developing a Saudi civilian nuclear programme, part of his effort to diversify from oil.

Such a deal would unlock access to U.S. nuclear technology and security guarantees and help Saudi Arabia level up with the UAE, which has its own programme, and traditional foe Iran.

But progress on a U.S. deal has been difficult because the Saudis did not want to agree to a U.S. stipulation that would rule out enriching uranium or reprocessing spent fuel – both potential paths to a bomb.

Ross said he expected an announcement of an agreement on nuclear energy, or at least a statement on progress towards one.

Published – November 17, 2025 10:35 pm IST

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman during the signing ceremony on September 17, 2025. Photo: X/@KSAmofaEN

U.S. President Joe Biden. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

President Joe Biden said on October 20 he thought Hamas was motivated to attack Israel in part by a desire to stop that country from normalising relations with Saudi Arabia.

“One of the reasons … why Hamas moved on Israel, is because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Mr. Biden said at a campaign fundraiser. The U.S. President indicated that he thinks Hamas militants launched a deadly assault on October 7 because, “Guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognise Israel” and were near being able to formally do so.

Israel-Hamas war, Day 15 LIVE updates | Biden says Hamas attacked Israel to stop historic agreement with Saudi Arabia

Jerusalem and Riyadh had been steadily inching closer to normalisation, with Mr. Biden working to help bring the two countries together, announcing plans in September at the Group of 20 summit in India to partner on a shipping corridor.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Mr. Biden on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September and told him, “I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

The Saudis had been insisting on protections and expanded rights for Palestinian interests as part of any broader agreement with Israel. An agreement would have been a feat of diplomacy that could have enabled broader recognition of Israel by other Arab and Muslim-majority nations that have largely opposed Israel since its creation 75 years ago in territory where Palestinians have long resided.

But talks were interrupted after Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip where Palestinians live into nearby Israeli towns.

The October 7 attack coincided with a major Jewish holiday. It led to retaliatory airstrikes by Israel that have left the world on edge with the U.S. trying to keep the war from widening, as 1,400 Israelis and 4,137 Palestinians have been killed. Hamas also captured more than 200 people as hostages after the initial assault.

The normalisation push began under former President Donald Trump’s administration and was branded as the Abraham Accords. It is an ambitious effort to reshape the region and boost Israel’s standing in historic ways. But critics have warned that it skips past Palestinian demands for statehood.

What are Israel’s options after the Hamas attack? | Analysis

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said soon after the Hamas attacks that the militant group’s leadership may have been driven in part by a desire to scuttle the United States’ efforts at the sealing of diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Such a pact between Jerusalem and Riyadh would be a legacy-defining achievement for Joe Biden, Mr. Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.