US Vice President Kamala Harris and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, along with their respective delegations, have travelled to Abu Dhabi to pay their respects and offer condolences to the UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the death of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the second President of the UAE and 16th ruler of Abu Dhabi, died at age 73 on Friday, May 13.
The UAE Federal Supreme Council voted unanimously for Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to assume the country’s presidency on Saturday, May 14.
Following the announcement, the US President Joe Biden’s administration sent some of its highest-level officials to the UAE, including US Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, to pay respects to the UAE’s late ruler Sheikh Khalifa and hold talks with the new UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.
The turnout wasn’t only to pay homage to a vital US ally in the region. The visits aimed to build on efforts behind the scenes to strengthen the bilateral relationship, a US official told Bloomberg.
“The stature and rank of this delegation is normally sent only to the closest of American allies,” said Norman Roule, a former senior CIA official who’s now a non-resident Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard.
“The makeup of this group is meant to make a statement,” he said.
The US outreach also gave the administration a chance to show that its foreign policy bandwidth isn’t entirely taken by events in Ukraine and that it knows even its domestic challenges – inflation and high fuel costs chiefly among them – can be aided by a stronger relationship with Gulf allies, Bloomberg reported.
“This is a security relationship, this is a green energy relationship, this is a foreign-policy relationship. That’s the message the US is sending to Emiratis, the GCC, Iran, and the region, but also Russia and China,” Roule said.
Saudi Crown Prince meets the UAE President in Abu Dhabi
The UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan also received the Saudi Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who conveyed the condolences of the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz on the passing of Sheikh Khalifa.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman congratulated Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed on his election as the UAE President, and wished “more security, stability, and prosperity to the UAE,” the state-run news agency, Wam, reported.
The Saudi Crown Prince was accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising Prince Abdulaziz bin Ahmed bin Abdulaziz; Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz, Minister of State and Member of the Cabinet; Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Governor of Riyadh Region; Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, Saudi Minister of Sports; Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Minister of Interior; and Prince Ahmed bin Fahd bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Governor of the Eastern Region.
The delegation also included Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Faisal bin Turki, Deputy Governor of Al Qassim Region; Prince Abdullah bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Minister of the National Guard; Prince Saud bin Salman bin Abdulaziz; Prince Turki bin Hathloul bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Governor of Najran region; Prince Salman bin Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz; Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud, Saudi Minister of Culture; Sheikh Dr. Saad bin Nasser Al Shithri, Advisor to the Royal Saudi Court, member of the Council of Senior Scholars; Dr. Issam bin Saad bin Saeed, Minister of State and Member of the Cabinet; Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi, Saudi Minister of Commerce, Acting Minister of Media; and Mohammed bin Abdulmalik Al Sheikh, Minister of State and Member of the Cabinet.
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