Over the past year, the media has been capitalizing on the attention that now president-elect Donald Trump has demanded. As I write this article, political pundits are still trying to predict Trump’s next move, attempting to decipher what his choices for his administration’s top positions mean, or figure out how America’s relationships with its allies will look like under a Trump administration.
The question is, who will Trump seek an historic alliance with in the Middle East to negotiate the future of American foreign policy towards the region? From his real-estate deals to developing a world-recognized brand name, he is a man who is attracted to boldness, relentless drive, and unbridled ambition. As of now, no man in the Middle East fits that description better than Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman.
{mosads}Bequeathed with the power to fundamentally change Saudi Arabia’s economic future by his father and current King, Salman Bin Abdulaziz, he is a state official that aggressively cuts through bureaucratic red tape to put action behind his pledges, a quality he shares with president-elect Trump. If Saudi Arabia were to mend its relations with the U.S., however, Trump demanded that the ally needs to pay up.
Trump’s demand is by no means negative, as America has every right to put its own sovereign interests above all else, and its allies should understand that. Once he assumes the Oval Office, however, he will be presented with all the past and present intelligence that state the actual facts: that Saudi Arabia has given to America in the exact same amount that America has taken from Saudi Arabia, proving that the relationship has not only remained healthy, but is also based on a win-win policy.
From sharing intelligence, to security, to economic and political collaboration, the two-state relationship is rooted firmly in a solid history of mutual trust and cooperation.
It is clear that Trump values effectiveness over efficiency, a value that is also shared by Mohammad Bin Salman. Both men believe in taking decisive action, rather than to lose invaluable time by dwelling over analysis and overthinking. More importantly, both are steeped in economic affairs, as Bin Salman is not only the chairman of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, but he also assumes control of the largest oil company in the world, Saudi Aramco. Recognizing that oil is no longer the economic lynchpin it once was, he also wants to open a new chapter in the Saudi economy, much like Trump wants to do the same for the U.S. economy.
On one side you have the Deputy Crown Prince focusing on privatization and diversification of income, while on the other side you have the president-elect promising to reduce income taxes and to preserve American jobs. In his last visit to America, Bin Salman also revealed that one of his biggest aims is to make the U.S. the most significant economic partner in achieving Vision 2030, an ambitious blueprint to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy. To quote Donald Trump during his economic policy speech at the Detroit Economic Club: Isolation is not an option.
Only great and well-crafted trade deals are. Mohammed Bin Salman has displayed a thorough understanding of this sentiment by initiating a range of bilateral trade deals with multiple countries over the past year, including France, Japan, and principally, the United States.
While I think that the future of the U.S.-Saudi relationship will be based largely on a practical, mutually beneficial economic partnership, that does not mean that the national security needs of both countries will fall by the wayside. The Middle East still presents a multitude of security concerns, the most prominent being Iran’s attempts to sow discord in the region by openly and unabashedly supporting terrorism, as well as combating ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
As such, both Saudi and U.S. administrations should take corrective and strident steps to combat terrorism in all of its forms, whether it’s stemming from a Shia or Sunni sect. Under a Trump administration, Mohammed Bin Salman constitutes the primary conduit for Trump to reach out to the Muslim world, as Bin Salman not only initiated a coalition of 40 Muslim countries to counter terrorism, but he also established a technologically advanced digital surveillance center that tracks and cracks down on extremism online called the Digital Extremism Observatory (DEO).
Should Trump try to negotiate a deal with the Saudi leadership, at a time when both countries face unprecedented economic and national security challenges? An answer to that question may lie in a quote from the president-elect’s best-selling book, “The Art of the Deal”, where he said: “My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high.” With his sweeping vision for Saudi Arabia’s future, no one is aiming higher than Mohammed Bin Salman.
We are going through a pivotal moment in history that is rife with opportunity for both Donald Trump and Mohammad Bin Salman to establish a stronger and more resilient U.S.-Saudi relationship than ever before. All it takes now is seizing it.
Salman Al-Ansari is the founder and president of the Washington DC-based Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee (SAPRAC).
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.