Posted on 05/21/2017 9:47:51 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Abu Dhabi: The supersized deals between Saudi Arabia and the US are expected to create thousands of jobs bolstering trade ties between the two countries, experts said on Sunday.
Deals worth in excess of $380 billion were signed during US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday including $110 billion arms agreement with the US companies and $50 billion worth deal between Saudi Aramco and different firms from the US.
“American investments will increase in Saudi Arabia and will create jobs for Saudis, transfer technology and bring into the fore small and medium sized businesses that will benefit from these deals,” John Sfakianakis, director of economic research at Jeddah based Gulf Research Centre told Gulf News.
“These are supersized deals that are the largest in the country’s bilateral ties with the US. It’s a win-win for both,” he said while describing the deals.
Among the deals signed on Saturday, Lockheed Martin said Saudi Arabia will procure $28 billion worth of Lockheed Martin integrated air and missile defence, combat ship, tactical aircraft and rotary wing technologies and programmes.
The defence giant also signed other agreements that are expected to create thousands of jobs both in the US and Saudi Arabia.
“The programmes in this announcement will support more than 18,000 highly skilled jobs in the US and thousands of jobs in Saudi Arabia as part of maintaining and modernising these platforms over the next 30 years,” the firm said in a statement on Sunday.
GE, Jacobs Engineering, McDermott International are the other companies, which have sealed deals with Saudi based firms during Trump’s visit.
“The relationship between Saudi Arabia and the US was strategic and now it’s taken to a different level of a truly strategic partnership of the century,” Sfakianakis added.
Saudi Arabia is trying to wean the economy off oil with a focus on creating a new industrial base as part of vision 2030 envisaged by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
Ali Adou, director of asset management at Abu Dhabi-based The National Investor said the deals bode well for Saudi economy in creating of jobs and in attracting foreign direct investment into the country.
“A number of strategic projects have been announced between the two countries and the impact will be very positive on the economy and shall boost diversification.”
Trump did not campaign on arms deals. Yet here we have the largest arms deal in US history.
Any deal with the vile corrupt 9/11 Saudis is disgusting. They are desperate to “buy” security. Yet despite their enormous expenditures on arms, the performance of their soldiers and pilots in Yemen demonstrates nothing but incompetence on the use of those arms. The details of those “deals” would be interesting to know. No doubt the devil will be found. Eventually despite the enormous oil wealth, the “arms” and harsh ,brutal repression Saudi Arabia will collapse as a political entity.
It’s a jobs deal.
But the Saudi Arabians are going to use those arms to kill innocent civilians by proxy from terrorists.
This is petrodollar recycling at its best and it’s always been good for us.
He campaigned on jobs. Here are hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs for American workers and repatriating oil money. You’re welcome.
What we define as corruption has long been a Saudi Way of life but Lockheed has been cited and fined for doing business the old way and they do not get involved in that type of bargain (bribery) any more. Too many watching and too much emphasis in house on ethics to go back.
On the other hand, a plan to expand the US military can work this way because (a) the per unit price of the items that the Saudis have purchased will come down for the US military and (b) if the Saudis have their own weapons supply then US interests are well served on the Saudi peninsula and the US will not have to support them as much.
The jobs angle and the fact that the Saudis are paying for this rather than the US taxpayer is a big plus too.
Sorry but that is rot. The vile Saudis are not only corrupt in the Western sense but they are the prime motivators and financiers of the barbaric Sunni jihadists that plague mankind. The US selling them arms is akin to the amoral “neutral” Swedes selling the Nazis industrial goods until the gold the Nazis stole from the Jews ran out. The Swedes kept the Nazi war machine going. That Nazi financing made possible the establishment of an industrial infrastructure that the Swedes capitalized on greatly while the rest of Europe was in post war ruins. Today amoral Sweden is rotting from within. Blood tinged petrodollars will not ultimately benefit the American people. Those arms will eventually be controlled by hostile people who will know how to use them.
I think President Trump rightfully sees that Iran is the biggest threat in the area. IMHO he is building a coalition to counter Iran and this arms deal is part of it. Also aircraft cost a lot of money. One more thing is Saudi Arabia does not have to buy these arms from us. They can buy them from China or Russia and Europe.
I think Trump knows something about competition.
I really cannot wait to see what happens when an h1b supervisor from India tells a third cousin of the Saudi Prince what to do.
that oughta be really interesting.
And at least four ships.
The Saudis desperately want to buy from the US. They want to be linked to the US and have the US as their ally. In 1991 when Saddam rolled into Kuwait, the Saudis knew they faced an existential threat. If Saddam has listened to some of his generals, he would have called himself a “liberator” and would have seized all of Arabia before the US concentrated its forces within two months of the Kuwait invasion. The vile, corrupt 9/11 Saudis know that the Russians , Chinese and the Europeans without the US would never have come to save their royal behinds. If not for the US they would have been dust and know that their survival depends on their American “ally” to be the guarantor of their regime. Of course they would turn on the US in an instant if circumstances changed.
It’s a matter of applying pressure.
If we are the source of Saudi arms against Iran, that means that we have leverage over the House of Saud. And while past Presidents would probably have done something dumb like GIVE the arms away, President Trump is a businessman who knows how to squeeze every bit out of a deal.
That and it’s better that the money come to us rather than go elsewhere, because those weapons WILL be bought from someone.
But long and short, he’s done a heckuvajob so far, and we know maybe 15% at most about this deal. I’m willing to trust that he knows what he’s doing.
I really cannot wait to see what happens when an h1b supervisor from India tells a third cousin of the Saudi Prince what to do.
***
Video tape it and you may well win the Internet forever.
Any estimate on how long it will take for all these jobs to come to the USA? Will there be jobs in Saudi Arabia for US citizens?
>>the deals bode well for Saudi economy in creating of jobs and in attracting foreign direct investment into the country.<<
.
I doubt that many US companies want to invest in Saudi Arabia without also sending US employees to the country as expatriates. Living among the local population in S.A. will be rough.
I see nothing at all wrong in taking their bountiful supply of our money back in order to sell them arms they will not really be able to use against us...
I believe this visit is the first time we have had a leader call for the extremists to be driven out.
I agree that much of the extreme activity in the mosques is due to Saudi extremists being allowed by the government to finance these “madrasas”. But Trump has it right by saying that they must be taken down from within the religion.
If it fails, it will not be because Trump has sold arms to the Saudi government. I like the approach we have seen. Sorry that you do not.
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