NYN | News
Recent U.S.–Saudi moves indicate that defense cooperation between the two sides is shifting into a more formal phase, with strengthened military arrangements and an expanded scope of security partnership in the region.
The Saudi Press Agency reported today that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a strategic defense agreement with U.S. President Donald Trump.
According to the agency, the agreement affirms that the two countries are security partners capable of working jointly to confront regional and international challenges. This includes enhancing long-term defense coordination, increasing deterrence and readiness, and developing and integrating defensive capabilities between the two parties.
Saudi Arabia places Yemen and several resistance movements in the region on its list of “regional threats,” which explains the reference in the agreement to partnership in confronting these threats — particularly given that Riyadh does not classify the Israeli entity as an adversary, making its military cooperation with Washington consistent with the latter’s ideological and legal commitments toward that entity’s security.
Although the agreement does not detail the nature of potential U.S. intervention to defend Saudi Arabia, the Trump administration recently announced — through Secretary of War Pete Hegseth — the ten principles of its military strategy, including imposing burden-sharing on allies.
In a parallel statement, the White House said that the “defense” agreement with Riyadh facilitates the work of American arms companies inside the kingdom and ensures Saudi financial contributions within the framework of cost-sharing.
Observers believe that these arrangements may include dimensions related to the regional landscape, including the possibility that the agreement is directed — directly or indirectly — toward Yemen.
