“Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman plans to meet top global executives, including the heads of Apple Inc. and Google, during his first trip to the U.S. since becoming heir to the throne of the world’s largest oil exporter, according to a person briefed on the trip’s details,” Alaa Shahine reports for Bloomberg.
“Prince Mohammed, known among journalists and diplomats as MBS, will hold talks with President Donald Trump and senior administration officials next week in Washington,” Shahine reports. “His itinerary also may include stops in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston, the person said on condition of anonymity because the plans aren’t final.”
“Trump has moved to strengthen U.S. ties with the kingdom since taking office in January 2017, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has cultivated a relationship with the crown prince. Saudi Arabia was the first foreign country Trump visited after taking office, traveling to the kingdom in May and signing memorandums and agreements for defense spending that totaled about $110 billion,” Shahine reports. “But U.S. relations also have been strained at times over a continuing dispute between a Saudi-led bloc and Qatar, a key ally in the Middle East that hosts a U.S. air base used in the war against Islamic State.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Makes sense for the Crown Prince and Tim Cook, the head of the world’s most valuable company, to meet.