Trump said he was ‘taking our military cooperation to even greater heights’ by giving Saudi Arabia the designation
US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman speak in the Colonnade of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, November 18, 2025
President Donald Trump designated Saudi Arabia as a key non-NATO ally on Tuesday, reviving a decades-old strategic partnership as the two countries signed sweeping deals on arms sales, civil nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence and critical minerals.
The designation signals a return to traditional US-Saudi ties. While it does not provide the mutual defense guarantees enjoyed by NATO members, it provides the kingdom with significant economic, military and defense advantages, a status the United States reserves for countries of strategic importance outside the Atlantic alliance. Pakistan received this designation from Bush after 9/11 in 2004.
The meeting underscored Trump’s determination to prioritize relations between the world’s largest economy and its biggest oil exporter, even as the international outcry over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has gradually faded from diplomatic discourse.
Trump said he “took our military cooperation to even greater heights” by giving Saudi Arabia the designation, adding that US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June had made the kingdom more secure.
Saudi Arabia paid a high price for the honor, becoming the 20th country on the list. Under a strategic defense deal that “strengthens deterrence across the Middle East”, Riyadh committed to new burden-sharing funds to offset US costs while making it easier for US defense firms to operate in the kingdom.
The countries also concluded talks on civilian nuclear energy cooperation, which the White House described as the legal basis for a long-term nuclear energy partnership — an agreement that has raised concerns among non-proliferation experts given Saudi Arabia’s past statements about potentially pursuing nuclear weapons.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged to increase Saudi investment in the United States to $1 trillion, a sharp increase from an earlier commitment of $600 billion.
The deals represent a significant diplomatic victory for Trump, who has made wooing Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies central to his Middle East strategy in his second term. The designation puts Saudi Arabia in the company of countries such as Israel, Japan, South Korea and Australia – although, unlike NATO members, Riyadh will not be covered by the alliance’s collective defense clause.
With additional information from Reuters
