After US-Saudi pact, new West Asia in the making |
The recent visit of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to Washington marks a definitive turning point in both the regional and global order. Coming at a period of intense geopolitical flux, the visit did more than restore the de facto Saudi leader’s diplomatic standing in the West, dented by the 2018 Jamal Khashoggi affair; it fundamentally redefined the US–Saudi alliance.
Hosted with full ceremonial honours by President Donald J Trump, including a South Lawn arrival, a State dinner, and Oval Office bilateral, this was MBS’s first White House engagement since 2018. It signals a sharp return to transactional realism in US foreign policy, prioritising shared security imperatives and economic interdependence over ideological constraints. In an era of great-power competition and Middle Eastern volatility, the visit underscores Riyadh’s enduring centrality to Washington’s regional architecture. Geopolitically, the summit represents a robust reaffirmation of the US-Saudi axis as the lynchpin for containing Iranian revisionism and countering Beijing’s inroads in the Gulf. Under the Biden administration, ties had deteriorated to a “managed estrangement,” pushing Riyadh toward alternatives like the 2023 China-brokered détente with Tehran and deeper Brics engagement.
The Trump-led reset dispels any notion of US retrenchment. By designating Saudi Arabia a Major Non-Nato Ally (MNNA) and signing the Strategic Defence Agreement (SDA), Washington has elevated Riyadh’s status without the encumbrances of a formal treaty. This framework embodies a pragmatic evolution of the 1945 Quincy Pact: It facilitates US defence industry........