News Analysis丨The increase in oil production may be difficult to achieve as U.S. President Biden visits Saudi Arabia or will “return empty-handed” – Xinhua English.news.cn

U.S. President Biden arrived in Jeddah, a city in western Saudi Arabia, on the afternoon of the 15th local time, starting a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia. That night, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed 18 agreements and memorandums of understanding covering energy, investment, communications, space and health. But Saudi Arabia has not given a clear stance on the increase in oil production sought by the U.S. government.

Analysts pointed out that Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia is more of a gesture to US voters, that the US government is trying to solve domestic economic difficulties, and even obtaining a “symbolic” oil production increase in the Gulf countries will not help lower US oil prices. limited effect.

United Arab Emirates economic expert Nayel Gawabra: The rise in oil prices has a lot to do with the severe inflation in the United States, so a major focus of Biden’s visit is to hope that countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will increase crude oil production. But neither of these two countries has much room to increase production, especially in the two years since the outbreak of the epidemic, the oil industry has not had enough investment to ensure production increases.

Another important agenda of Biden’s trip to the Middle East is to change the neutrality of allies in the region on the situation in Ukraine. In this regard, experts believe that Biden may make some commitments at the multilateral meeting held on the 16th. However, due to distrust of the US policy in the Middle East and the possible changes to the US political situation in the mid-term elections, the Gulf countries will continue to maintain neutrality on the Ukraine issue. Therefore, several goals set by Biden for this visit are difficult to achieve, and it is very likely that he will end up empty-handed.

Saudi political analyst Suleiman Akiri: I don’t think Biden can get much on these issues, because it is not in the interests of the Gulf states to have a bad relationship with Russia. In particular, both sides are also members of the “OPEC+” mechanism, and this mechanism represents the common economic interests of Russia and the Gulf countries, which also means that the Gulf countries will continue to maintain a relatively neutral position on the Ukraine issue.

Headquarters reporter Li Chao: On the afternoon of the 16th local time, US President Biden will participate in the “Security and Development” summit in Jeddah with leaders of many countries in the Middle East. However, in the eyes of the outside world, compared with some repeated empty promises , the United States may need to change its long-standing Middle East policy of inciting confrontation and division. Because only in this way can the Middle East achieve real security and development.