By Hadeel Al Sayegh, Pesha Magid and Maha El Dahan
DUBAI (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend a meeting of global financiers and tech executives hosted by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in Miami later in February, according to several people with knowledge of the event.
Trump’s participation would come after Saudi Arabia condemned his call to displace Palestinians from Gaza as part of a U.S.-led rebuilding plan.
It also follows Trump’s call in January for Riyadh to invest $1 trillion in the U.S. – a figure about matching the size of the Saudi PIF sovereign fund’s assets.
According to the people, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, Trump is scheduled to deliver an in-person address at the gathering.
A Riyadh-based representative for the FII Priority summit, scheduled for February 19 to 21, declined to comment. Representatives for the U.S. embassy in Riyadh didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“It demonstrates that the U.S.-Saudi relationship is multi-dimensional and Riyadh is able to compartmentalise policies because it has become increasingly transactional in how it manages foreign relations,” Neil Quilliam, associate fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Programme of London-based think tank Chatham House.
Arab states have opposed Trump’s plans for rebuilding Gaza as a “Riviera of the Middle East” and his call for displacing Palestinians from the enclave. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Tuesday that there is an Arab Egyptian plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing its people.
Trump enjoyed close ties with Gulf states during his first tenure as president, including Saudi Arabia, which has invested $2 billion with a firm of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former aide.
The Trump Organization plans to build a Trump Tower in the Saudi capital Riyadh as part of real-estate expansion in the region, including in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi.
Trump has called on Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil. He has also said Riyadh should increase a planned U.S. investment package to $1 trillion from an initially reported $600 billion.
U.S. exports of goods to Saudi Arabia were significantly higher in value than Saudi foreign direct investment in the U.S. in recent years, government data showed.
Among other attendees poised to attend the Miami summit are TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, as well as Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the $925 billion Saudi Public Investment Fund, according to the FII website. The public website doesn’t list Trump as an attendee.
(This story has been refiled to correct the spelling of Al-Rumayyan in paragraph 11)
(Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh, Pesha Magid, Maha El Dahan and Anousha Sakoui; Editing by Elisa Martinuzzi, Edmund Blair, Kim Coghill, Ros Russell)
