Saudi Arabia was right to defy Biden over oil production, minister says, cementing a power play that seems to have paid off
MANUEL BALCE CENETA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
- Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said at Davos the country was right to cut oil production.
- The cut drew fury from the Biden administration, which swore to retaliate but ultimately did not.
- The kingdom is steering a new, more independent foreign policy despite opposition from the US.
A senior Saudi Arabian official celebrated the country's decision to defy the US last year and cut its output of oil, cementing a new Saudi approach to world affairs that is unafraid to upset the White House.
Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan made the comment at the Davos economic summit in Switzerland on Wednesday.
He addressed the diplomatic spat that erupted with the US last October after the Saudis announced alongside Russia that they would cut oil production.
At the time, the Biden administration believed it had secured a secret deal with the Saudis to boost production in a bid to cut inflation, a key domestic priority for Biden.
US officials and top Democrats were enraged by the Saudi decision, and two countries — ostensibly allies — exchanged accusations and insults. Saudi Arabia has always insisted it made the decision for economic reasons.
"Energy security is absolutely key. And here what we feel in the kingdom is that stability is absolutely the key to that energy security," the outlet Al Arabiya reported Prince Faisal as saying at Davos.
"So one of what we believe the successes of, for instance, OPEC+ has been it has been able to deliver a relatively stable oil price, one that is predictable by both consumers and producers."
Analysts say that one of the reasons that Biden didn't follow through on threats to retaliate against Saudi Arabia over the cut was that oil prices did not spike, as some had expected.
China's economic slowdown has been cited as a major reason for prices being dampened. Oil prices overall have been volatile in recent months, driven by events such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's COVID-19 lockdowns.
Saudi Arabia's defiance of the Biden administration over oil is one of the ways the kingdom is steering a new, more independent foreign policy, driven by its de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
It is drawing closer to the US' foes, Russia and China, amid perceptions that US power is waning.
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