A White House official has confirmed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit Washington on November 18 to meet U.S. President Donald Trump. The meeting comes as Trump continues efforts to persuade Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, which normalized Israel’s relations with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco in 2020.
So far, Saudi Arabia has refrained from joining the process, insisting on concrete steps toward establishing an independent Palestinian state. In an interview on CBS’s *60 Minutes* aired Sunday, Trump expressed confidence that Saudi Arabia would eventually become part of the Abraham Accords. Earlier this month, he reiterated his hope to expand the agreements to include more Middle Eastern countries, especially Saudi Arabia.
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During the upcoming meeting, Trump and the Crown Prince are also expected to discuss a potential U.S.-Saudi defense pact. According to the *Financial Times*, both sides are working toward finalizing an agreement during the visit. A senior Trump administration official told *Reuters* that “talks are underway to have a deal ready for signing upon the Crown Prince’s arrival, though details are still being finalized.”
Saudi Arabia is seeking formal U.S. defense guarantees and access to advanced American weaponry. It already ranks among the largest buyers of U.S. arms and has maintained a close strategic relationship with Washington for decades, built on oil supplies in exchange for American security commitments.
In May, during Trump’s visit to Riyadh, the United States signed arms sales agreements worth about $142 billion with Saudi Arabia. At that time, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged $600 billion in investments, prompting Trump to quip that the figure should be “one trillion dollars.”