In the context of the energy crisis that continues to plague Western countries, the United States finally bowed its head, Biden personally visited Saudi Arabia for oil prices, put forward a request to increase oil production, to help the United States and Western countries to solve the urgent needs, but the reality has made Biden touch a nose of ash.
According to the Global Network, US President Biden began his first trip to the Middle East since taking office on July 13, local time, meeting with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed. It is worth mentioning that on July 9, just before Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia, he had published a high-profile article in the US media "Washington Post" claiming that as the PRESIDENT of the United States, it is his job to maintain the strength and security of the United States, and his visit to Saudi Arabia is "crucial" to the security of the United States. "We must confront Russia's 'aggression' to put us in the best position than to compete with China and work for greater stability in important parts of the world." And to do that, we must engage directly with countries that can have an impact on these outcomes. Saudi Arabia is one of them." At the same time, Biden also said that the purpose of his meeting with the Saudi leader is to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries on the basis of common interests and responsibilities, while adhering to the basic values of the United States.
What Biden did not expect was that just when his vows were hyped up for his visit to Saudi Arabia, a statement from Saudi Arabia directly "poured cold water" on him. At that time, on July 12, the US media quoted Saudi officials as saying that the Saudi side directly rejected Biden's relevant request in two sentences, first, now that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Russia has become closer than ever, Saudi Arabia does not intend to break contact with Russia; Second, Saudi Arabia has no plans to extract more crude oil to help the U.S. government deal with the energy crisis.
In fact, this is not the first time that Saudi Arabia has publicly embarrassed Biden, just in March this year, Biden called the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, also for the sake of oil production, according to the US media, the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were unwilling to take Biden's phone at that time. In fact, since the conflict in Yemen and the murder of Saudi journalist Khashoggi in 2018, Western countries and Saudi Arabia have become more and more distant because of so-called "human rights issues", and the contradictions between the United States and Saudi Arabia have also become prominent. By contrast, Russia's ties with Saudi Arabia have grown closer over the past few years, with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries becoming a cornerstone of their foreign policy. Outside analysts believe that Russia is strengthening cooperation with Saudi Arabia to find new allies and weaken what the United States calls "global leadership."
In the most stark example, in June, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced plans to increase oil production, agreeing to increase production collectively by 648,000 barrels per day, a move that the United States praised at the time as helping to lower oil prices. The move seems to comply with the U.S. request, but the reality is that Saudi and Russian energy officials have discussed the issue privately, and russia has not objected, because Saudi Arabia promised that the new oil will only replace the oil that Russia has stopped production due to sanctions, and will not seize the business between Russia and traditional customers. In addition, some Saudi officials also pointed out that Saudi Arabia and Russia plan to increase trade and investment, which is regarded by Crown Prince Mohammed as a strategy to "break away from the West".
All indications are that Saudi Arabia has no plans to help the United States deal with the energy crisis. It is undeniable that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict provoked by the United States has exacerbated the current global energy crisis, and now the United States cannot solve it, so it hopes for the Middle East countries, the United States is willing to "do things", but there is no way to "level things" style, Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries have long been unaccustomed, not to mention still deal with "aftermath" for them.