The United States “will not walk away” from the Middle East and leave a vacuum to be filled by Russia, China or Iran, US President Joe Biden has told a summit in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea city of Jeddah.
He also told the summit on Saturday that the US is committed to ensuring Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.Leaders of six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates – plus Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq are holding talks on regional security and bilateral relations with the US at the summit.
Biden was using the summit to lay out his strategy for the Middle East as he closed the final leg of a four-day trip meant to bolster ties in the region.
“We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran,” Biden said. “We will seek to build on this moment with active, principled, American leadership.”
Although US forces continue to target armed groups in the region and remain deployed at bases throughout the Middle East, Biden suggested that he was turning the page after Washington’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Jeddah Security and Development Summit concluded on Saturday at the King Abdullah International Conference Center with Saudi Arabia saying it did not have any additional capacity to increase oil production beyond 13 million barrels per day.
During the 30-minute bilateral meeting, leaders highlighted the joint efforts to strengthen partnerships between the GCC countries, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and the US.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman inaugurated the summit by welcoming the leaders present: US President Joe Biden, King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, King of Bahrain Hamad Al-Khalifa, Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Kuwait Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Oman Deputy Prime Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Asa’ad bin Tariq bin Taimur Al-Said and President of the UAE Mohammed bin Zayed.
The crown prince said: “The Kingdom has announced an increase in its production capacity level to 13 million barrels per day, after which the Kingdom will not have any additional capacity to increase production.”
He also addressed climate change, calling for a balanced mindset through a gradual transition towards sustainable energy sources.
“The environmental challenges that the world is currently facing, especially climate change, and the international community’s determination to maintain the Earth’s temperature in accordance with the levels set by the Paris Agreement, require dealing with them realistically and responsibly,” he said.
This would achieve sustainable development, through a “balanced approach” and a “gradual and responsible transition towards more sustainable energy sources, which takes into account the circumstances and priorities of each country," he added.
The crown prince said that to reach net neutrality on carbon emissions, Saudi Arabia is following the circular carbon economy approach, in line with its development plans. The Crown Prince said that it is enabling its economic diversification, without affecting growth and supply chains, to address emissions through the Green Saudi initiatives and the Green Middle East initiative.
“We hope that the summit will establish a new era of joint cooperation to deepen the strategic partnership between our countries and the United States of America to serve our common interests and enhance security and development in this vital region for the whole world,” he said.
He also called on Iran to be cooperative and not interfere in regional affairs, during his opening remarks at the summit. US President Joe Biden followed the Crown Prince's speech by affirming that the US would remain an active and engaged partner in the Middle East.
Biden, the eighth US president to visit Saudi Arabia, also expressed optimism.
“For the first time since 9/11, an American president is visiting this region without American troops being engaged in combat and a combat mission in the region,” he said.
“To rebuild trust and deliver real results, and we will operate in the context of the Middle East as it is today, a region more united than it has been in years, the GCC is the prime example of that. The former rivals re-establish diplomatic and economic ties, new memberships are being forged, and increasingly the world is seeing the Middle East through the lens of opening an opportunity.
“Let me state clearly the United States is going to remain an active engaged partner in the Middle East. As the world grows more competitive and the challenges we face more complex, it is becoming clear to me how closely interwoven America’s interests are with the success of the Middle East,” he said.
