The White House announced on Wednesday that President Joe Biden will fly to Germany on June 25 for the G7 Summit and then to Madrid for a NATO conference.
Despite expectations that Biden will visit the Middle East, there was no mention of any trips in Saudi Arabia or Israel.
Biden will meet with leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the European Union at Schloss Elmau, a luxury resort spa in the Bavarian Alps.
According to the White House, the leaders will debate the situation in Ukraine, the economic and climate crises, and global health.
They’ll also discuss “the food and energy problems brought on by Russia’s actions.” The Biden administration has blamed Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on the high cost of food and gas.
Biden will travel to Madrid for the NATO Summit in 2022 on June 28.
The alliance will talk on how to strengthen its defensive network, including how to defend against cyber threats, as well as how to strengthen partnerships with democratic partners in Europe and Asia.
The two meetings come about four months since Russia has invaded the Ukraine, which has tested Biden’s leadership skills in holding the alliances together in sanctioning Moscow, particularly over its oil, which Europe is more dependent on than the United States.
The Western allies have imposed harsh sanctions on Russia but there are questions on how long those will continue amid skyrocketing inflation and high food prices.
In April, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett invited Biden to visit and the president accepted.
No date has been announced but there was speculation it could have been tied to the G7 and NATO trip.
There was also reports Biden would make a stop in Saudi Arabia in June but that has been postponed until July, according to reports, amid an internal White House debate over whether he should meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
For nearly a month the White House has had an internal debate about whether to visit Saudi Arabia as the U.S. experiences rising gas prices.
And Biden had angrily rejected meeting with MBS, arguing the presidency ‘should stand for something,’ two people with knowledge of his thinking told Politico.
However, he appears to have relented from the stance as he recognizes he needs more Saudi oil.
The trip has been postponed until July, NBC News reported, after there had been speculation he would visit both Saudi Arabi and Israel when he is in Europe for G7 and NATO meetings.
‘We are working on a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia for a GCC+3 Summit,’ a senior administration official told the network. ‘We are working to confirm dates. When we have something to announce, we will.’
When asked about the rumored visit last week, Biden said it was a possibility but that he wasn’t sure if he’d go.
‘And there is a possibility that I would be meeting with both Israelis and certain Arab countries at the time, including, I expect, Saudi Arabia,’ he said.
‘However, I have no immediate intentions.’ We’re taking a look at that.’
Saudi dissidents slammed Biden’s trip, calling it a ‘betrayal’ if the president ‘shakes hands’ with MBS, who has been chastised for allegedly breaching human rights.
A group of relatives who had family members slain in the 9/11 attacks advised him he needed to bring up more than an oil transaction.
They claimed that if he traveled to the country, he would have to raise ‘accountability’ concerns about 9/11 hijackers’ reported ties to Saudi Arabia.
Following the alleged assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, Salman has been under intense scrutiny. The leader, on the other hand, has denied any role in the journalist’s death.
Biden had previously stated that he would treat Salman as a ‘pariah,’ but now that his administration is under fire for failing to address the growing cost of gasoline, which has surpassed $10 in some parts of California, he appears to be changing his position.
‘Look, I’m not going to modify my stance on human rights, but as president of the United States, my responsibility is to bring peace if I can,’ Biden said when asked if he would still consider Salman as a ‘pariah.’
However, after Saudi Arabia rejected the US request to expand oil production to offset Russian oil reparations, the Washington Post stated that Obama may try new outreach efforts.
The Kingdom did start taking steps to increase oil production.
Last week White House thanked Saudi and OPEC for its bigger-than-expected oil release.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to increase its output by more than 200,000 barrels a day, the WSJ reported.
At Thursday’s meeting between OPEC and 10 non-OPEC producers, the group known as OPEC+ agreed to raise output by 648,000 barrels a day in July and in August. Previously the output was around 400,000 barrels a day.
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In a statement, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “The United States appreciates OPEC+’s critical decision today to boost production by more than 200,000 barrels per day in July and August based on changing market conditions.”
‘With this news, the current quota arrangement, which has been in place since July of last year, will come to an end sooner, and the monthly output rise, which was previously scheduled for September, will take effect sooner.’
‘We acknowledge Saudi Arabia’s involvement as the chair of OPEC+ and the group’s largest producer in achieving this agreement among the group’s members.
We also recognize efforts and positive contributions of UAE, Kuwait, and Iraq. The United States will continue to use all tools at our disposal to address energy prices pressures,’ she said.
The US has been plagued with high gas prices after continuously hitting record highs. For the first time in history, all 50 states are above $4 a gallon.
Furthermore, the Middle Eastern behemoth has been a strong economic and military ally of the United States, and Biden’s government has found it difficult to deal with it, according to NBC. With difficulties over the Iran nuclear deal and Israel-Palestine, Saudi Arabia has remained loyal to Trump’s administration.
However, detractors argue that it’s about more than simply gas prices, and that it’ll send the message that the crown prince is unstoppable as long as fuel prices fall.
‘No one will care about your vices regardless of who is in the White House if you can cut petrol costs,’ Khalid Aljabri, whose father was a key intelligence official, told the Washington Post.
Aljabri has also accused the crown prince of targeting him for assassination and took his children hostage, he told the Post.
He also said it lets the prince ‘get away with a lot of things,’ even if Democratic administrations, who have been much more critical of Saudi than that of the former Republican White House.
‘But look at them now. They’re coming back,’ he told the Post. ‘The moment [Mohammed bin Salman] feels like he has unconditioned backing from the US, he goes rogue.’