00:00I mean, a really impressive day, a historic day.
00:04We saw President Trump getting a royal welcome.
00:07It looked like a warm welcome.
00:09Just tell us what's been happening there in Riyadh today.
00:12I would definitely say it was a warm royal welcome.
00:15President Donald Trump, when he arrived in Riyadh,
00:17he was welcomed by the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman,
00:20as well as other Saudi officials.
00:23They then had a meeting, a quick meeting over coffee
00:27before heading to Ali Amama Palace.
00:30Where they had a U.S.-Saudi summit,
00:31as well as the introduction of their delegates.
00:35And that's where then they later had talks.
00:38And then they both will attend,
00:41they both have attended the Saudi-U.S. investment forum,
00:47where multi-billion dollar deals are being signed and announced there.
00:52Yeah, some big deals,
00:53and this strategic deal that's been announced as well.
00:56I mean, this is, of course, the first state visit,
01:00the first planned foreign visit of President Trump's second term.
01:04And, of course, Saudi Arabia is the first stop of this Middle Eastern tour.
01:08What do you think that says?
01:10What message does that send out, Joanne?
01:12It's also significant to say, Tom,
01:15that this is the second time U.S. President Donald Trump makes this decision
01:18to choose Saudi Arabia as his first destination for a foreign state visit.
01:24This says so much.
01:25This says how much of a global player Saudi Arabia is
01:28and how important of an ally Saudi Arabia is for the United States.
01:32And just referring to that investment forum that you mentioned just a moment ago,
01:38I mean, I was just looking at a list of some of the attendees.
01:40I mean, it's a veritable A to Z, isn't it,
01:42of some of the biggest names in global business?
01:47I mean, it's the biggest names you can think of,
01:49whether it's in tech, in business.
01:52You have Elon Musk, who's the Tesla CEO.
01:55Elon Musk is in attendance.
01:56And OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman,
01:59they both actually met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier in the day.
02:03You have the Uber CEO, who earlier announced
02:05that we would be seeing autonomous vehicles in Saudi Arabia this year
02:09and many, many other big names.
02:12OK, so exciting news for the United States and for Saudi Arabia as well.
02:17Let's talk about that visit you mentioned,
02:20the 2017 visit during the first Trump administration,
02:25the first stop, as you said, of the president,
02:28as he was then in his first term.
02:31How much do you think Saudi Arabia has changed?
02:33What sort of a difference do you think
02:34President Trump's going to see eight years later?
02:38We can say so much has changed.
02:41We can definitely see now Saudi Arabia as a huge global player
02:44and a huge hub for investment globally.
02:47So many huge companies are investing more in the kingdom,
02:51and that's putting it on a bigger stage,
02:54a bigger player on the world stage.
02:56And then so much has changed internally with Vision 2030.
02:59We're coming so much closer to 2030.
03:02We have Expo 2030 coming up with all the preparations happening for that,
03:07and then we have the World Cup in 2034 also.
03:12So these things were not announced previously,
03:14and all the preparations are happening for that now,
03:17as well as how much has changed regionally,
03:20and that's playing a huge role also.
03:22Saudi Arabia is playing a huge role in what's happening regionally as well.
03:25Now, one of the big foreign policy achievements
03:29of the first Trump administration was the Abraham Accords.
03:33A lot of people asking,
03:35are those accords likely to be expanded
03:38during the course of this regional visit?
03:40For now, we can definitely say that Saudi Arabia
03:45is not going to be joining these accords,
03:48and Saudi Arabia has made that clear many times
03:50because the main terms that the kingdom has
03:54is the establishment of a Palestinian state.
03:57And with the Israeli war continuing on the Gaza Strip
04:00with no ceasefire in sight and no deals made,
04:05definitely the Abraham Accords will not be expanded
04:07to include Saudi Arabia, at least not during this trip.
04:11Okay, so just to sum up this visit,
04:14obviously there are economic deals,
04:17there are geopolitical conversations to be had.
04:21I mean, it's a mixture of those two things, isn't it?
04:26Definitely.
04:26So today's main focus, I would say, has been on economic deals.
04:29We have, again, the Saudi U.S. investment forum happening.
04:34Again, multi-billion dollar deals are coming out of this forum.
04:37And then tomorrow we have the Gulf U.S. summit
04:40where Gulf GCC leaders and the representatives
04:44will be in attendance and they will meet with the U.S. president
04:47as well as the Crown Prince, Mohamed and Salman.
04:49So we have the economic side
04:52and then as well as the political side happening as well.
04:56Okay, well, we really appreciate you bringing us up to speed.
04:59Joanne Seria, Al Arabiya's English website editor.
05:02Thanks for your time. Thanks for joining us.
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