Joe Biden has said he aims to “strengthen a strategic partnership” with Saudi Arabia during a visit there this week, but added he will hold true to “fundamental American values”.
“I know that there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia. My views on human rights are clear and longstanding, and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad, as they will be during this trip,” the US President wrote in an opinion piece for The Washington Post published overnight on Saturday.
While Mr Biden is expected to press for increased Saudi oil production in the hope of taming spiralling fuel costs and inflation at home, his visit signals a shift: an apparent abandoning of efforts to ostracise the kingdom’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, over the horrific murder of a dissident.
As a presidential candidate, Mr Biden said the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi – a Saudi-born US resident known for writing critical articles about the kingdom’s rulers for The Washington Post – had made the country a “pariah”. US intelligence findings released by the Biden administration identified Mohammed, known as MBS, as mastermind of the operation.
Last month Mr Biden had sought to distance himself from the upcoming encounter, stressing he was going to meet with King Salman and his team. But the White House confirmed last week he will meet MBS as part of that larger delegation during the trip.
Read the article in The Australian (AFP).