Saudi officials say they don’t want to cut ties with Russia, which Washington blames for rising fuel prices.
As Saudi officials have indicated that their country is not willing to abandon its oil production alliance with Russia, which Washington has claimed is part of the reason for sky-high fuel costs, Vice President Joe Biden’s attempt to lower rising oil prices by convincing Saudi Arabia to increase production appears to be doomed to fail. Biden’s goal was to convince Saudi Arabia to increase production in order to bring down rising oil prices.
This week will mark the beginning of Vice President Biden’s first trip to the Middle East since taking office. He will begin his journey in Israel and the West Bank, which are both now under Israeli occupation. His journey will come to a close in Saudi Arabia. According to what Vice President Biden has said, the trip will serve American interests by concentrating on global trade and supply chains that the United States is dependent on.
The conflict in Ukraine was the spark that ignited a developing problem in the global energy market, and many nations in the West, notably the United States, want Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production to assist alleviate this issue. The increased production will result in a decrease in world pricing, which will in turn be a form of economic punishment for Russia.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that authorities from the United States have stated that Vice President Biden will debate the human rights record of Saudi Arabia while he is there. According to what was published in the publication, Saudi officials are not expected to make any concessions with regard to human rights, nor are they willing to forsake a production collaboration with Russia’s oil industry.
For decades, Saudi Arabia has been attempting to achieve an energy alliance with Russia. However, in order to accomplish so while also repairing frayed relations with the United States over its human rights record, Saudi Arabia must walk a tightrope.
Both Washington and Riyadh have shared their perspectives that the priorities of Vice President Biden’s travel to Saudi Arabia will be distinct from one another.
The administration of Vice President Joe Biden has stated that the summit of Arab nations will take centre stage. During the summit, the President of the United States will meet with various other heads of state from the area.
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, Saudi officials have stated that the meeting between Vice President Biden and Saudi King Salman and his leadership team, which includes his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will feature “substantial exchanges between Prince Mohammed and the president on a range of topics,” and that Saudi officials have described the summit as being “peripheral.”
After the United States intelligence community reached the conclusion in February 2021 that the crown prince, who will one day become king and is currently 36 years old, was complicit in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist for the Washington Post, in 2018, many people in Washington consider the crown prince to be a pariah.
Relationships between Biden and bin Salman have been frosty, with Biden refusing to speak with the crown prince last year and bin Salman refusing to speak with the president on a call in the lead up to the Ukraine war in February. Both of these instances occurred as a result of bin Salman’s refusal to speak with Biden.
Some people believe that the president is giving up on his plan to make Saudi Arabia “a pariah” for the murder of Khashoggi because of the impending trip that Vice President Biden is planning to go there. This has caused debate.
On June 30, Vice President Joe Biden stated that he will not actively press Saudi Arabia to raise oil production in order to control the rising price of crude oil.
During this time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ramping up economic pressure on the West, particularly in Europe, which is experiencing an especially severe energy crisis as a direct result of its excessive reliance on energy supplied by Russia. In particular, Putin has been focusing his efforts on the United Kingdom.
A significant Kazakh oil pipeline that transports crude oil to Europe via a port on the Black Sea was ordered shut down by a court in Russia just one week ago.