Saudi Arabia is considering reducing its investments in the United States.
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman issued a vague statement about the country's investments in the United States, a recent Reuters report said.
"In the same way we have the possibility of boosting our interests, we have the possibility of reducing them," he said in the report, speaking about Saudi Arabian U.S. investments that SPA said amount to $800 billion.
Saudi Arabian relations have suffered since the Biden administration published a report that implicated Prince Mohammed in the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a separate Reuters report said recently.
The Kremlin reportedly said that Putin told bin Salman that politicizing global energy supplies was unacceptable, a recent Yahoo report said. This conversation took place during discussions about western sanctions and a potential OPEC+ deal.
A Nov. 2021 opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal by Karen Elliott House noted that Saudi Arabia was moving toward China and distancing itself from the U.S.
"The crown prince managed President Trump effectively, but he meshed with China's President Xi," one of the crown prince's ministers said in the piece. "We are pro-growth. Wherever we find an opportunity that works for us we take it."
"You name it, we are doing it with China," said another adviser. "China is a strategic partner."
Saudi secondary schools have begun teaching Chinese.
China is Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner due to the demand for oil, and Saudi Arabia buys arms from China. Saudi Arabia reportedly did not want to get stuck in the middle of the feud between China and the United States.
"Don't make us choose," said a prominent Saudi minister in a sentiment echoed by many, the Wall Street Journal said. "Our oil sales have to fund our people."
"Muddled" and "confused" are the words Saudi ministers use to describe U.S. Mideast policy.
"Public pronouncements are fine but on the working level nothing happens," a Saudi foreign policy official said.
This comment came in response to a sharp decrease in weapons sales during the Biden administration and the removal of defensive Patriot missiles, the Wall Street Journal said.
Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia is the world's largest exporter of oil.
Saudi Arabia may increase prices in April as global supplies tighten in the wake of Russian sanctions, Reuters also said.
U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate closed at $103.41 a barrel on March 1, the first settlement above $100 since July 2014, a release issued by the Houston Chronicle said.