President Joe Biden defended his trip to Saudi Arabia next week as an opportunity to “reorient, but not break, relations with a country that has been a strategic partner for 80 years,” he wrote in an article ‘opinions of the Washington Post.
Biden is scheduled to travel to the Middle East from July 13-16 to promote peace in the region and make a desperate effort to convince Saudi Arabia to help reduce record gas prices, rising amid the war. Russia with Ukraine.
Saudi Arabia, Biden wrote, “is now working with my experts to help stabilize oil markets with other OPEC producers.”
“I know there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia,” he continued. “My view on human rights is clear and long-standing, and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad, as they will be during this trip, as they will be in Israel and the West Bank.” .
When he travels to Israel, Biden will receive the country’s highest civilian honor, the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the award was “to thank him for being a true friend of Israel” and for Biden’s “decades-long support for Israel’s security, deepening our alliance and fighting anti-Semitism.” “.