Saudi Arabia greets Donald Trump with billions of dollars of deals

[superbeets]

[FONT=&quot]Saudi Arabia welcomes Donald Trump with agreements for deals worth tens of billions of dollars as he embarks on his first state visit to the kingdom




[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Riyadh/Dubai: Saudi Arabia welcomed US President Donald Trump with agreements for deals worth tens of billions of dollars on Saturday as he embarked on his first state visit to the kingdom, which is undertaking unprecedented economic reforms.


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[FONT=&quot]The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, is contributing $20 billion in an infrastructure investment fund with Blackstone Group LP. The fund will eventually double in size “from other investors,” according to a statement. Saudi Aramco said it signed 16 accords with 11 companies valued at about $50 billion. One initial deal—worth $15 billion—was signed with General Electric Co. The US and Saudi defence ministry also negotiated a package of about $110 billion, according to a White House transcript on Friday.[/FONT]

 

[superbeets]

[FONT=&quot]“I can’t imagine another business day that’s been as good for the United States or for the kingdom,” US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said in the Saudi capital, dismissing concern that controversy engulfing Trump’s administration at home would impact his first overseas trip as president.


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[FONT=&quot]Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is eager to reset relations with the new US administration after feeling shunned by President Barack Obama, who crafted the 2015 nuclear deal with their Shiite rival Iran. The kingdom is also embarking on plans to diversify its economy away from oil—including the sale of a stake in Aramco—after crude prices slumped by half over the past three years.[/FONT]

 

[superbeets]

[FONT=&quot]Corporate titans[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Officials gave different figures for the value of all the deals signed. Foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said the agreements that were concluded valued more than $380 billion, $30 billion more than what was announced by secretary of state Rex Tillerson in the same news conference. Earlier in the day, Saudi cabinet minister Mohammed Alsheikh put the total at about $300 billion.

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[FONT=&quot]Honeywell International Inc., Nabors Industries Ltd, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. were among other US firms to sign accords Saturday after American corporate titans met local business heads in Riyadh.

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[FONT=&quot]“Many of us sitting at the table are overseeing substantial investments in the United States,” energy minister Khalid Al-Falih said on a panel at the inaugural Saudi-US CEO Forum that included Saudi billionaire Lubna Al-Olayan and finance minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan.



The kingdom’s PIF also said it contributed in SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund, in addition to contributions from Mubadala Investment Co., Apple Inc., Foxconn Technology Co., Qualcomm Inc. and Sharp Corp. SoftBank announced its first close of the fund Saturday with $93 billion of commitments. The Saudis may put as much as $45 billion into the venture, people aware of the matter said in January.[/FONT]

 

[superbeets]

[FONT=&quot]Defence deals[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The kingdom’s new defence company Saudi Arabian Military Industries was also due to sign four “large deals” with leading global technology, military and industrial firms, Al-Falih said, without naming the companies.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Raytheon Co. will cooperate with SAMI, as the firm is known, on defence-related projects and technology development. It will establish Raytheon Arabia in Riyadh, the company said in a statement. SAMI was set up this month to help reduce reliance on foreign purchases and to diversify the economy away from oil.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Trump’s eight-day trip will also take him to Israel and Europe. Leaders and representatives from 54 Arab and Muslim countries will also be present during his two-day stay in the kingdom, a close US ally. Bloomberg[/FONT]

 

[superbeets]

The White House said the military equipment and services contracts will support 'tens of thousands of new jobs in the U.S. defense industrial base.'



The new defense deals are part of Trump's strategy to hold both the ISIS terror army and Iran's nuclear ambitions in check through the intervention of Middle Eastern partners instead of expensive American military deployments.


A White House official said Saturday that the purchases are meant to accomplish just that, for the sake of Saudi and regional security.


The official also said a strengthened Saudi military will be better equipped to contribute to counterterrorism operations across the region.


Trump and Salman signed a joint vision statement, nine separate defense cooperation pacts – including eight that are finalized – and a separate set of 'private sector agreements,' according to White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

 

[superbeets]

+13



Saudi Aramco will be relying on U.S. companies to build new oil rigs like this one in the Persian Gulf



Separately, a CEO forum being held on the margins of the Trump-Salman meeting resulted in $22 billion in new deals in the oil and gas sector, according to the event's organizers.


Saudi Aramco announced agreements with U.S. companies including Weatherford, Jacobs, Honeywell, McDermott, and Nabors.


The agreements will result in an unspecified number of new offshore Persian Gulf drilling rigs, at a time when the kingdom is pumping less oil to stabilize global prices.


Aramco appears to be planning for a future that will require greater crude production by gearing up to produce materials and equipment that had previously been imported.

 

[superbeets]

[h=1]'A lot of money! Big dollars!' and 'Jobs, jobs, jobs!' Trump team delivers $350 BILLION in new long-term business for U.S. companies as Saudis snap up defense equipment[/h]

• Deals inked Saturday during signing ceremony will drive $110 billion in immediate new business for defense companies in the U.S.
• Longer-term value will be $350 billion over 10 years
• White House chief economic adviser said the Saudis are 'going to hire US companies' for 'a bunch of infrastructure related things'
• He boasted that the deal is worth 'a lot of money. Big dollars. Big dollars'
• Military hardware going to Saudi Arabia: 'aerostats, tanks, artillery, counter-mortar radars, armored personnel carriers [and] helicopters'
• State Department also says the Saudis will acquire and and missile-defense systems 'such as Patriot and THAAD'

American military defense companies have agreed to immediately sell nearly $110 billion in equipment and services to the Saudi Arabian government as part of a long-term agreement inked Saturday by the Trump administration and the Arab kingdom.


The deal, formalized in a signing ceremony in the capital city of Riyadh, also calls for an expanded deal worth a total of $350 billion over ten years.


'That was a tremendous day,' President Donald Trump said at the top of a bilateral meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.


'Tremendous investments in the United States. Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs.'


The State Department released a fact sheet that described the military hardware Saudi Arabia will buy as 'aerostats, tanks, artillery, counter-mortar radars, armored personnel carriers [and] helicopters.'




Separately, U.S. companies in the oil center stand to gain $22 billion in new deals with the state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco. And pacts with other companies could balloon that number as high as $50 billion.


House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters that the kingdom is 'going to hire US companies' for 'a bunch of infrastructure related things,' boasting that the deal is worth 'a lot of money. Big dollars. Big dollars.'


Saudi Arabia will 'invest a lot of money in the U.S. and have a lot of U.S. companies invest and build things over here,' Cohn said.


White House press secretary Sean Spicer claimed on Twitter that the $110 billion in immediate defense contracts represents the 'largest single arms deal in US history.'


Commerce Secretary Gary Cohn told reporters that U.S. companies would gain '23 new licenses, and then all of these contracts.'


'I can't imagine another business day that's been as good for the United States and the kingdom,' he said.


Donald Trump is in Saudi Arabia on the first of five stops during his inaugural foreign trip as president, getting chummy with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and preparing to deliver a speech on Sunday that promises to frame his administration's relationship with the Muslim world.

 

[ScottL]

Corporate titans
Officials gave different figures for the value of all the deals signed. Foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said the agreements that were concluded valued more than $380 billion, $30 billion more than what was announced by secretary of state Rex Tillerson in the same news conference. Earlier in the day, Saudi cabinet minister Mohammed Alsheikh put the total at about $300 billion.

Adel al-Jubeir was the guy the Iranians plotted to kill in a Georgetown restaraunt they intended to bomb a few years ago. The plot was thwarted. He's been on CNBC as a guest a few times.

 

[919]

Malcolm Nance
@MalcolmNance



Good lord. Trumps do Literal Pay-to-Play. This is grounds for immediate dismissal fm government. Rebecca Ballhaus
@rebeccaballhausSaudi Arabia and UAE pledge $100 million to Ivanka's Women Entrepreneurs Fund, per @carolelee:

 

[mplastered]

Jobs, jobs, jobs........good work, now throw your phone away.

 

[Willie99]

More jobs, improved national security, unite against ISIS

win win win

MAGA



while the fucking idiots are still focused on losing issues

we need a pill people

 

[919]

More jobs, improved national security, unite against ISIS

win win win

MAGA



while the fucking idiots are still focused on losing issues

we need a pill people

 

[919]

[h=1]An investment company run by one of Trump's top supporters has secured an enormous investment from Saudi Arabia [/h]


Saudi Arabia to Invest $20 Billion in Infrastructure, Mostly in U.S.nytimes.com

 

[919]

More jobs, improved national security, unite against ISIS

win win win

MAGA



while the fucking idiots are still focused on losing issues

we need a pill people

hypocrisy

• 1: a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not : behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel His hypocrisy was finally revealed with the publication of his private letters.; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion our conventional morality often serves as a cover for hypocrisy and selfishness — Lucius Garvin
  
• 2: an act or instance of hypocrisy a keen awareness of one's parents' hypocrisies

 

[ScottL]

For the most part this trip has been a success thus far. Every president tries a different tactic to build relationships with the Arab World. Bush tried toppling dictators and nation building, because, "Free people are less likely to attack us." Obama tried bowing to everyone and apologizing. Now Trump is going to his strength, deal-making. He is focusing on commonalities and not differences (only for the moment)??? He did not lecture to the dictators about how they enslave their own people, and why this also causes terrorism. Trump thought wagging his finger at Muslim leaders would yield negative results. So he focused on Iran, ISIS, and economics. He also expressed a strong desire for peace. Time will tell if this tactic worked.

 

[919]

 

[919]

[h=1]Remarkable. Trumps Saudi arms package isnt real. Same as announcements where existing jobs packaged as his own deals [/h]


The $110 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia is fake news | Brookings Institutionbrookings.edu

 

[ScottL]

Revealed: Trump's $110 Billion Weapons List for the Saudis - Aaron Mehta (Defense News)
The administration's much touted $110 billion arms proposal to Saudi Arabia, previously slim on specifics, includes seven THAAD missile defense batteries, over 100,000 air-to-ground munitions and billions of dollars' worth of new aircraft, according to a White House document obtained by Defense News.
The document also shows a focus on space capabilities for the Kingdom, with two "Remote Sensing Satellites" estimated at $800 million and two satellite communications & Space Based Early Warning Systems estimated at $4 billion.

 

[Michelangelo]

Looks like back to back contradictory reports here. Which is bs? I'm guessing the former.