Saudi Arabia has expressed the belief that currently soured relationship it has with the United States will improve over time.
A rift appeared for the two countries shortly after OPEC+, at its last meeting in Vienna, decided to reduce its oil production target by 2million barrels per day, the most since 2020.
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia investment minister, Khalid al-Falih said: “If you look at the relationship with the people side, the corporate side, the education system, you look at our institutions working together. We are very close and we will get over this recent spat that I think was unwarranted.”
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Al-Falih, who was Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister when OPEC+ was created,
The US administration has shown its displeasure early this month when Saudi Arabia led OPEC+ into the 2million barrels a day oil cut.
U.S. President Joe Biden told CNN in an exclusive interview a week after the OPEC+ meeting that there would be some consequences for Saudi Arabia for its decision with Russia to steer OPEC+ into a large oil production cut.
Saudi Arabia, for its part, came out with a statement that expressed “its total rejection” of Biden’s and other statements from Washington with regard to the decision.
Multiple OPEC+ producers have also defended the group’s decision to reduce production, saying they had all agreed this was the course toward oil market stability and that the decision was unanimous.
The UAE’s energy minister, Suhail al-Mazrouei wrote on Twitter, “I would like to clarify that the latest OPEC+ decision, which was unanimously approved was a pure technical decision, with NO political intentions whatsoever.”
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This week, Saudi Arabia holds the FII forum, dubbed “Davos in the Desert” by the Saudis, with many U.S. finance executives attending, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.
However, there were no officials from the Biden administration to be seen at the forum on Tuesday, Reuters reports. But Jared Kushner, a former senior aide to former President Donald Trump, was in attendance and is a featured speaker at the event
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