Donald Trump has signed a $600bn deal with Saudi Arabia which includes the „largest defence sales agreement in history“. It comes at the start of the US president’s three-day Middle East tour. Listen to the latest Trump 100 below as you scroll.
Tuesday 13 May 2025 16:03, UK
Donald Trump is due to speak at the Saudi-US Investment Forum today in Riyadh. Before then, Elon Musk has taken to the stage to speak.
The Tesla and SpaceX owner, who is described as a „lifetime friend of the kingdom“, thanks Saudi Arabia for approving his Starlink satellite services for maritime and aviation uses.
He also reveals that he showed Optimus – Tesla’s humanlike robot currently under development – to both Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump should appear next – he is listed as giving a „leadership address“ alongside MBS. We’ll bring you text updates and you can watch in the stream at the top of the page.
After his speech, Trump is due to head to Diriyah At-Turaif, a historical area and Unesco world heritage site, on the edge of Riyadh.
He’ll then be hosted at an official state banquet to end his day.
As we’ve been reporting, Donald Trump will also be visiting Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week after he leaves Saudi Arabia.
But his omission of Israel has been described as „very significant“ by a former Middle East adviser at the US defence department.
Speaking to Gareth Barlow, Jasmine El Gamal said Benjamin Netanyahu „continues to see the region from a purely military sense“.
„He’s out of step with this Trump administration and you can see that in the tension between Trump and Netanyahu,“ she said.
El Gamal added that Trump’s trip to other parts of the Middle East is a strong message to Netanyahu: „if you’re not going to get on board with this, you’re going to be left out“.
Watch the full interview in the video below.
Earlier, we saw Donald Trump sign a wide-ranging economic partnership with Saudi Arabia, in what our economics and data editor Ed Conway says is a reminder that „a lot of this is about business“.
„It’s about the fact that Saudi Arabia has an enormous amount of capital that has been put into US businesses,“ he told Jayne Secker.
Conway explained that Tesla, and many of the other firms that have joined Trump in Saudi Arabia, have a lot of money from the country’s sovereign wealth funds.
„This is all about trying to funnel some of that money into the US economy,“ he said.
„There’s a consciousness that Trump has made clear, a consciousness that the US needs that investment in the coming years if it’s going to try to keep the economy going and steer clear of recession.
„Of course, this is just the start of a tour around the Middle East, and there will be similar conversations across many of those countries.“
The White House has released a fact sheet providing more details on what’s included in the $600bn US-Saudi strategic economic partnership.
It calls the deal „historic and transformative“ for both countries, adding it represents a „new golden era of partnership“ between Washington and Riyadh.
The fact sheet says the deal will strengthen America’s energy security, defence industry, technology leadership and its access to global infrastructure and critical minerals.
It includes the „largest defence sales agreement in history“, with the $142bn providing Saudi Arabia with „state-of-the-art war fighting equipment and services from over a dozen US defence firms“.
It also includes „extensive training and support“ to build the capacity of the Saudi armed forces, including enhancement of Saudi service academies and military medical services.
The deal also includes:
We can now bring you some footage showing the moment Donald Trump signed off on an economic deal with Saudi Arabia.
The wide-ranging deal includes agreements on defence, energy and mining.
Trump and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman went to separate tables to sign the deal before meeting in the middle of the room and shaking hands.
It’ll take some time before the deals signed between the US and Saudi Arabia today become a reality, US correspondent Mark Stone says.
Stone is in Riyadh, where Donald Trump and Mohammed bin Salman have just signed a strategic economic partnership between their respective countries (see 2.14pm post).
The details involved in the agreement are minimal, but Stone says they include:
„Whether this is just the very tip of a lot of work that still needs to be done or whether this actually does represent something a little more profound, we will see,“ Stone says.
„This is really broad brush stuff, and we need to wait to see when all this becomes a reality.“
Stone adds that there is a sense that today’s deal has been „cobbled together as quickly as they can“ so that Trump’s visit can be billed as a big, glamorous event.
„This is all about the look. The convention centre I’m in resembles the Palace of Versailles, but it was built in 1999 – it’s a symbol of how quickly Saudi Arabia has transformed.
„Trump loves this sort of stuff. He loves the gold, and goodness me, there’s a lot of gold here.“
Donald Trump has just left the Royal Palace in Riyadh, where he signed a „strategic economic partnership“ deal with Saudi Arabia.
He’s not leaving the Saudi capital just yet, and we’ll bring live shots from his next appearance as and when it happens over the coming hours.
Away from Saudi Arabia, we can now bring you some more information on a potential meeting in Turkey between Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy called on Putin to meet him on Thursday in Istanbul, with Trump saying he is „thinking“ of attending the talks if they go ahead.
In his most recent comments on the meeting, Zelenskyy says Ukraine has invited Trump to attend the talks, but the US leader is yet to confirm his attendance.
Zelenskyy is due to meet Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, in Ankara on Thursday and will fly to Istanbul if Putin shows up.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on who would attend on the Russian side.
„As soon as the president sees fit, we will announce it,“ he said.
Donald Trump has now left the room where he just signed a „strategic economic partnership“ deal between the US and Saudi Arabia.
Trump sat alongside Mohammed bin Salman after putting pen to paper as an official read aloud details of the agreement.
The US president appeared tired as he listened, momentarily closing his eyes before quickly being escorted out of the room after the spectacle was over.
Donald Trump has now entered the room with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The signing ceremony is now under way, and we’re told it’s for a „strategic economic partnership“.
Trump and the crown prince have each gone to separate tables to put pen to paper on the wide-ranging deal.
The agreements include a „letter of intent“ between the US and Saudi Arabia defence departments regarding the modernisation and development of the capabilities of the Saudi Armed Forces.
Energy and mining agreements are among the other things included in the deal.
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