WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing for a visit to the United States by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next month, in what could be the first state visit to the U.S. by a foreign leader in Trump’s second term, according to several people familiar with the planning.
Work is underway to prepare a package of agreements that Trump and the crown prince could sign or witness during the visit, U.S. officials familiar with the plans for the trip said. The trip is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 17-19, but the timing and status of the visit could change, according to two people familiar with the planning.
Those people and the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the trip before it has been announced.
The planned trip would be a significant part of the push Trump has made to restore relations with Gulf Arab nations incensed by Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar as they discussed a U.S. ceasefire proposal. The first major foreign trip of Trump’s second term was to Saudi Arabia, where he expressed hope that the countries would further cement their commercial and business ties and suggested that increased military cooperation was also in the cards.
It also would be the first visit to the United States by the crown prince since the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul during Trump’s first term in office in 2018. U.S. intelligence agencies have said Prince Mohammed likely directed the killing, resulting in U.S. sanctions against several Saudi officials. He denies his involvement.
But in the years since, both the Trump and Biden administrations have tried to mend ties with Saudi Arabia, whose crown prince has also sought to rehabilitate his global image. That has included U.S. presidential visits to the oil-rich Gulf ally, with a lavish, pomp-filled welcome for Trump in May.
The first Trump administration unsuccessfully sought to have Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords, the agreements that normalized relations between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan.
The Biden administration sought to negotiate a similar deal, but those attempts were derailed by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. A fragile ceasefire in Gaza that Trump negotiated has given the administration new hope for the possibility that Saudi Arabia could be brought into the Abraham Accords.
Details of the agreements to be signed during the planned visit were not immediately clear, but many are expected to be commercial and trade deals under the framework of a Strategic Economic Partnership that Trump signed with the crown prince during the Republican president’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May.
A bilateral security deal, long sought by the Saudis, is also under discussion, according to the officials. Trump signed an executive order last month offering Saudi Arabia’s fellow Gulf state neighbor Qatar security assurances in the wake of Israel’s attack on Hamas leadership in Doha.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment, and the Saudi Embassy declined to comment. Bloomberg first reported the expected visit.
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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
