Trump’s first foreign visit: US President Donald Trump is planning to visit Saudi Arabia in May this year, which will be his first foreign trip of his second term in the White House. Axios reported this citing two senior officials.
Trump’s first foreign visit, The development comes at a time when the White House has highlighted Saudi Arabia as a potential partner in the Abraham Accords. The agreement was reached in 2020 and was intended to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab and Muslim-majority countries.
Saudi Arabia has recently been playing a key role in US efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. It hosted talks first between the US and Russia, and then between the US and Ukraine.
According to the report, the plan to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia has currently been on the back burner, as Riyadh maintains that the agreement must include the establishment of a Palestinian state, which is unacceptable to Israel.
However, last week Trump claimed that more countries would join the Abraham Accords. The agreement was reached during his first term in office and was signed on September 15, 2020, by Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
Earlier this month, Trump said he would travel to Saudi Arabia as his first foreign trip of the term to finalize a major deal with Riyadh, which would include $1 trillion in investment in the US economy and the purchase of military equipment.
He said on March 6 that he would likely visit Saudi Arabia in the next month and a half. He also recalled that his first foreign trip in 2017 was to Riyadh, where he announced $350 billion in investment from Saudi Arabia. The report added that discussions about the visit have taken place between senior US and Saudi officials in recent weeks.
According to sources in The Times of Israel, April 28 was initially considered for Trump’s visit, but it was later postponed. According to Axios, under the current plan, Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia is expected in mid-May.