Saudi Arabia Plays Trump Card in US-China Dance
Members of the entourage of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz Al Saud aboard the USS Quincy at the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal in February, 1945. As President Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia this week, local news and social media recalled the historic meeting of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Saudi monarch, which set bilateral ties for decades.
Source: Bettmann/BettmannA 1945 meeting between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz Al Saud might be regarded as something of interest only to modern-history buffs. But this week, images of that pivotal tête-à-tête between the US and Saudi leaders circulated in news and social media as President Donald Trump visited the Middle East.
While Trump’s tour — his first major overseas trip since taking office for the second time — was consequential, it would be a challenge to put it on par with Roosevelt’s rendezvous with Ibn Saud on the cruiser USS Quincy, after which the Americans provided for Saudi security and the Saudis provided oil. But Riyadh, and other governments in the region, had every interest in playing up Trump’s visit as momentous. It’s part of a broader strategy of balancing between the US and China.