Blinken downplays reports of Saudi, UAE distrust of Biden admin

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday downplayed the suggestion that the Biden administration was snubbed by oil-leading nations within the Center East because the U.S. appears to counter surging oil costs amid Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.

“We’re all speaking commonly,” the secretary mentioned. “I spent a good bit of time on the cellphone with my Emirati counterpart,” he continued. “I commonly met with my Saudi counterpart, together with in Munich, just some weeks in the past. President Biden spoke with King Salman of Saudi Arabia final month in a dialogue that set out a really expansive agenda.”

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The query was posed following a report Wednesday morning by The Wall Avenue Journal that claimed leaders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) declined calls with Biden in current weeks. The report additionally mentioned Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyanspoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, regardless of declining to speak with Biden.

“There was some expectation of a cellphone name, nevertheless it didn’t occur,” a U.S. official reportedly mentioned of the deliberate dialogue between the Saudi Prince Mohammed and Biden. “It was a part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil].”

The U.S. and its NATO allies have been trying to garner help for Ukraine as Russia carries on with its lethal invasion for a second week. 

Biden introduced ban imports Tuesday on Russian oil, gasoline and coal in one other try to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “vicious conflict of selection.”

The U.Ok. mentioned it will section out its reliance on Russian oil by the tip of 2022 and the European Union mentioned it will even be making cuts to its Russian oil imports – a transfer made harder by the truth that Europe receives a whopping 40% of its oil wants from Moscow whereas the U.S. receives roughly 3%.

In a joint press convention Wednesday with Blinken, U.Ok. Overseas Secretary Elizabeth Truss urged different nations to “get on board with our sanction effort.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Kremlin, Moscow, on Feb. 14, 2022. 
(ALEXEI NIKOLSKY/Sputnik/AFP through Getty Pictures)

“100 and forty-one nations voted in opposition to Russia aggression,” she mentioned. “We are going to finish strategic dependence on authoritarian regimes for our power and for different very important assets. And we are going to step up our work to construct financial and safety alliances all over the world, together with with India and the Gulf nations to additional isolate Russia.”

Fuel costs hit a document excessive this week and are anticipated to proceed to surge globally with the renewed efforts to focus on Russia’s financial system by way of its prime moneymaker – oil manufacturing. 

However Blinken prompt Wednesday that regardless of reluctance by the Saudi-led Group of the Petroleum Exporting International locations Plus (OPEC+) to extend oil manufacturing final yr amid a seven-year excessive, OPEC-member nation UAE could also be reconsidering. 

“I feel that there was simply an announcement a short time in the past – I am unsure if it has been made publicly but – about Emirati help for elevated manufacturing on the subject of OPEC +,” Blinken mentioned. “Which I feel is a vital factor to stabilize international power markets to make it possible for there stays an ample provide of power all over the world.”