Latest news with #GulfTrip
BBC News
20-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Did Trump really strike Gulf deals worth $2tn?
Flying home from his Gulf trip last week, President Donald Trump told reporters "that was a great four days, historic four days".Visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), he added in this trademark swagger that "the jobs and money coming into our countries, there has never been anything like it".Trump claimed that he was able to secure deals totalling more than $2tn (£1.5tn) for the US, but do the numbers add up?The trip itself was an extravaganza, with the three Gulf states pulling out all the of fighter jets, extravagant welcoming ceremonies, a thundering 21-gun salute, a fleet of Tesla Cybertrucks, royal camels, Arabian horses, and sword dancers were all part of the UAE also awarded Mr Trump the country's highest civilian honour, the Order of visit's optics were striking; the region's richest petrostates flaunted their opulence, revealing just how much of that fortune they were ready to deploy to strengthen ties with the US while advancing their own economic goals. Before embarking on the trip, President Trump, who touts himself as a "dealmaker in chief" was clear that the main objective of the trip was to land investments worth billions of dollars. On the face of it, he Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reiterated a pledge to invest $600bn in US-Saudi partnerships. There were a plethora of deals announced as part of this, encompassing arms, artificial intelligence (AI), healthcare, infrastructure projects and science collaborations, and various security ties and $142bn defence deal grabbed a lot of the attention as it was described by the White House as the largest arms deal there remains some doubt as to whether those investment figures are his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, Trump had announced that Saudi Arabia had agreed to $450bn in deals with the actual trade and investment flows amounted to less than $300bn between 2017 to 2020, according to data compiled by the Arab Gulf States report was authored by Tim Callen, the former International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission chief to Saudi Arabia, and now a visiting fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute."The proof with all of these [new] deals will be in the pudding," says Mr BBC contacted the White House for comment. In Qatar, Trump announced an "economic exchange" worth at least $1.2tn. However, in the fact sheet released by the White House deals worth only $243.5bn between the two countries were of the Qatari agreements that was confirmed was Qatar Airways purchasing up to 210 passenger jets for $96bn from the beleaguered American aircraft White House said the deal would support 154,000 jobs in the US each year of their production, totalling one million jobs over the deal's the UAE inked an agreement to construct the world's largest AI campus outside the US, reportedly granting it access to 500,000 cutting edge microchips from US giant Nvidia, starting next project sits within the UAE's broader pledge to invest $1.4tn in the US over the next decade. As well as the challenge of delivering what is promised, another potential obstacle to these figures being realised are oil prices tumbled to a four-year low in April amid growing concerns that Trump's tariffs could dampen global economic growth. The decline was further fuelled by the group of oil producing nations, Opec+, announcing plans to increase Saudi Arabia, the fall in global oil prices since the start of the year has further strained its finances, increasing pressure to either raise debt or cut spending to sustain its development month, the IMF cut the forecast for the world's largest oil exporter's GDP growth in 2025 to 3% from its previous estimate of 3.3%."It's going to be very hard for Saudi to come up with that sort of money [the $600bn announced] in the current oil price environment," Mr Callen analysts note that a lot of the agreements signed during the trip were non-binding memorandums of understanding, which are less formal than contracts, and do not always translate into actual transactions. And some of the deals included in the agreement were announced oil firm Aramco, for instance, announced 34 agreements with US companies valued at up to $90bn. However, most were non-binding memorandums of understanding without specified monetary its agreement to purchase 1.2 million tonnes of liquified natural gas annually for 20 years from US firm NextDecade was also included in the list of new deals, despite it first being announced months ago. Yet the massive investments mark a continuation of the shift in the US-Gulf relationship away from oil-for-security to stronger economic partnerships rooted in bilateral Al Saif, an assistant professor at Kuwait University and an associate fellow at think tank Chatham House, says that the deals indicate that US and the Gulf states are "planning the future together and that was a significant change for the relationship".He adds that the AI deals with the UAE and Saudi Arabia were central to this as "they clearly demonstrate that they are trying to see how to build the new global order and the new way of doing things together".This emphasis on AI underscores the growing strategic importance of the technology to US diplomacy. Trump was accompanied on the trip by Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk, who owns Grok on the eve of the visit, the White House scrapped tough Biden-era restrictions on exports of the advanced US semiconductors required to best run AI systems. The rules had divided the world into tiers, with some countries enjoying broad access to its high-end chips, and others being denied them 120 countries, including the Gulf nations, were grouped in the middle, facing strict caps on the number of semiconductors they could import. This had frustrated countries such as Saudi Arabia, who have ambitions to become high-tech economies as they transition away from Saudi and the UAE are racing to build large-scale AI data centres, while Abu Dhabi, the UAE's capital, aims to become a global AI UAE has made visible efforts to reassure Washington – deepening partnerships with US tech firms, curbing ties with Chinese companies, and aligning more closely with American national security Al-Saif says that the UAE is "betting on the Americans when it comes to AI". "We have seen that the technological turn in the 90s came from the US anyway." Both camps are hailing the visit as a triumph. For the Gulf, and especially Saudi Arabia, it resets a partnership that frayed under Biden, and underscores their ambition to act as heavyweight players on the world Trump, touting "trillions" in new investment offers a timely boost - his tariff hikes have dented global trade and pushed US output into its first quarterly dip in three Gulf deals will be sold as proof that his economic playbook is the end of the trip, Mr Trump worried that whoever succeeds him in the White House would claim credit for the deals once they come to completion."I'll be sitting home, who the hell knows where I'll be, and I'll say, 'I did that,'" he said."Somebody's going to be taking the credit for this. You remember, press," he said, pointing to himself, "this guy did it."
Bloomberg
15-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Iran Nuclear Deal ‘Getting Close' Trump Says
President Donald Trump suggested the US is nearing an agreement to curb Iran's nuclear activities, telling business leaders during the final leg of his Gulf trip, 'I think we're getting close to maybe doing a deal.' His comments prompted a sell-off in oil with prices falling sharply. But while Tehran has spare capacity that it could bring back, any deal isn't likely to impact global supply much.
The National
13-05-2025
- Business
- The National
All eyes on Trump's 'very big announcement' as he returns to Gulf
Live updates: Follow the latest on Trump's Gulf trip Touching down at Riyadh airport, the tension is palpable. As you drive from the airport into central Riyadh, the flags of the US and Saudi Arabia flutter in the wind along the route. The destination is the Ritz-Carlton, where a business forum is part of President Donald Trump 's three-state tour of the Gulf. This is the first official foreign trip of Mr Trump's second term, and when he lands on Tuesday morning, the objective is to do deals and to expand spheres of influence. Let's talk about the deals first of all. This is where the companies that are also attending come in: Larry Fink, dealmaker-extraordinaire for BlackRock; Jane Fraser from Citibank; Kelly Ortberg, chief executive of Boeing; and Nvidia boss Jensen Huang. Defence, AI and nuclear know-how So what's in play? Well, right now, Saudi Arabia has committed $600 billion of investment in the US, while the UAE has committed $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years. Expectations are high that Saudi Arabia will raise the game from $600 billion to a higher number. We've been promised this by Mr Trump, that something very big is going to be announced. The question is, what will it be? Will it be on AI – days ahead of a Joe Biden-era plan to curb foreign access to cutting-edge chips? Will it be on security? People are tipping defence and nuclear as being perhaps the most prominent areas where deals could be done. The kingdom is known to be keen to push ahead with a civilian nuclear power plan, and is looking for expertise to make it happen. When it comes to this slightly bigger story, this is about spheres of influence. As the US moves towards, some would say, a more splendid isolation, why try to start this new relationship with Saudi Arabia? US favour Perhaps there is an additional subplot to be considered more deeply. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar lie at that fault line between East and West, between the US and China. And this trip is very much 'come do your deals in the US, we will perhaps even expedite those more quickly for you from your sovereign wealth funds'. The subplot is, of course, a bigger and grander security bargain for the Gulf and the Middle East. Again, spheres of influence, because China wants to encroach where the US is said to be withdrawing from. China wants to yield a new form of power, where the US may retrench. And that is the essence of what Mr Trump wants to make sure does not happen. He wants to ensure that these Gulf nations, their wealth and their capacity to deploy are swayed very closely towards the US. And for that, you have got to have a grand bargain. Competition So that's what's on the cards for Saudi Arabia and the UAE. But you've got to hand it to Qatar for looking to shine more brightly than your neighbours. They've offered, according to reports, a fully fitted-out 747 to serve as the next Air Force One. The details, we understand, are still to be worked out. And finally, the other major story is that Qatar may be in the market for a 100-jet Boeing plane order. So the deal flow is already starting. Let's see what their neighbours deliver.
Free Malaysia Today
13-05-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Trump starts Gulf visit seeking big economic deals
Qatar's royal family is expected to gift US President Donald Trump a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane, to be outfitted for use as Air Force One. (EPA Images pic) RIYADH : US President Donald Trump will arrive in Saudi Arabia tomorrow morning to kick off a four-day swing through the Gulf region, a trip that will focus more on economic deals than on the security crises besetting the region, from the war in Gaza to the threat of escalation over Iran's nuclear programme. With a who's who of powerful American business leaders in tow, including Tesla CEO and Trump adviser Elon Musk, Trump will first visit Riyadh – where the Saudi-US Investment Forum is taking place, and continue to Qatar on Wednesday and the UAE on Thursday. Trump has also said he may travel on Thursday to Turkey for potential face-to-face talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Trump's second foreign trip since taking office again – his first was to Rome for Pope Francis' funeral – comes during a moment of geopolitical tension. In addition to pressing for a settlement to the war in Ukraine, the Trump administration is pushing for a new aid mechanism for war-torn Gaza and urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree a new ceasefire deal there. Over the weekend, US and Iranian negotiators met in Oman to discuss a potential deal to curb Tehran's nuclear programme. Trump has threatened military action against Iran if diplomacy fails. However, potential Turkey side trip aside – those matters are not the focus of Trump's Middle East swing as it is currently scheduled. The US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE are expected to announce potentially trillions in investments. Saudi Arabia already committed in January to US$600 billion in investments in the US over the next four years, but Trump has said he will ask for a full trillion. In addition to Musk, business leaders including BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser will make the trip. Secretary of state and national security advisor Marco Rubio and secretary of defense Pete Hegseth will travel with the president. During the Riyadh stop, Trump is expected to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over US$100 billion, sources told Reuters, which could include a range of advanced weapons including C-130 transport aircraft. The US and Saudi Arabia are expected to avoid the topic of normalisation between Riyadh and Israel altogether, sources told Reuters, even as it is Trump's most enduring geopolitical goal in the region. Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said last week that he imminently expected progress on expanding the Abraham Accords, a set of deals brokered by Trump in his first term under which Arab states including the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco recognised Israel. However, opposition by Netanyahu to a permanent stop to the war in Gaza or to the creation of a Palestinian state makes progress on similar talks with Riyadh unlikely, sources told Reuters. Trump's second and third stops – in Qatar and the UAE, respectively – are similarly expected to focus on economic issues. Qatar's royal family is expected to gift Trump a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane to be outfitted for use as Air Force One, an arrangement that has been met with scrutiny by ethics experts. Trump is expected to donate the plane to his presidential library for use after his term ends.
