Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit Washington, D.C. and other cities in the U.S. in June, as the influential Saudi official plans to discuss both foreign policy and economics, according to sources cited by several news outlets.
Because Prince Mohammed is both Minister of Defense and President of the key Council on Economic and Development Affairs his mandate covers a broad spectrum of issues important to the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
The trip has not been formally announced, but rumors of a visit by Prince Mohammed this month have been noted by several outlets. Reuters was the first to report the trip this weekend and CNN followed. Both reported the trip citing sources familiar with the trip, but did not name those sources.
According to Reuters‘ sources, the Deputy Crown Prince would be in Washington June 14-16 “and then will travel to New York for meetings with financial firms, and possibly to Los Angeles.”
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In Washington, the Crown Prince will meet with “various officials from the White House, State Department and Pentagon, as well as business leaders,” according to Elise Labbott from CNN.
The announcement of the visit comes just days after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) took a massive stake in Uber, the largest investment in a private company ever made.
Saudi Arabia is also looking to privatize parts of Saudi Aramco, and is turning to international markets for increased funding. The Deputy Crown Prince’s meetings in New York may include meetings with financial houses to court investment.
The upcoming visit will take place roughly one week after Saudi Arabia’s cabinet is briefed on Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Plan (NTP), a pivotal element of the “Vision 2030” reforms announced April 25th. The NTP, “is expected to flesh out sector-by-sector details of the implementation of Prince Mohammed’s program, which is intended to restructure the kingdom’s entire economy and make it less dependent on oil revenue,” Reuters reports, again citing an unnamed source.
Editor’s Note: SUSTG will closely follow and update this storyline with pubic details and event coverage from the visit.
