"The deal with Russia will remain in force": Riyadh will brush off Biden

US President Joe Biden said that he has not yet made a final decision about his visit to Saudi Arabia and meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.

At the same time, he mentioned a "more general" meeting in the kingdom devoted to security issues - with the participation of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE.

According to the New York Times, Biden intends to restore relations with the Saudis, which worsened after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. To do this, it is planned to use the mechanism of so-called "group diplomacy", involving Riyadh's allies in the operation.

The goal is to increase the supply of Saudi oil to the world market and isolate Russia. And by and large — to disrupt the agreements in the OPEC+ format.

According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the United States has reached a "fragile truce" in Yemen, promising the Saudis a "lasting peace" in the future. At the same time, a bet was also made on the fact that the economies of the two states are closely interconnected, and for this reason alone, Riyadh will not seek to "seriously" break with Washington.

But it is not necessary to talk about any serious warming in relations between the two countries yet. Saudi Arabia, like other Arab countries, adheres to neutrality in the Ukrainian crisis and does not join the anti-Russian sanctions. Practice shows that it gains considerable dividends by manoeuvring between Russia and the West.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia does not demonstrate any intentions to change anything in the OPEC+ format, which was determined at the recent Russia-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting, which was held with the participation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

However, there is a forecast according to which Riyadh will simply postpone the increase in oil production planned for September within OPEC+ for the summer. This is allegedly justified by the fact that the kingdom is afraid of losing control over quotations, which may take off, including due to the EU embargo.

But one way or another, the Saudis, even somewhat getting closer to the United States, do not plan to "turn away from Russia”.

Elena Panina, Director of the RUSSTRAT Institute