Bahrain, Qatar royals invited to dine with Trump at White House

The prime ministers of Bahrain and Qatar were set to visit the White House on Wednesday as the two countries roll out billions of dollars in investments with the U.S. government and American firms.

Bahrain’s Premier, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, was scheduled for an Oval Office chat with President Donald Trump in the late morning, followed by lunch. Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani meets Trump for dinner at 7 p.m.

After arriving in Washington on Tuesday, Prince Salman held meetings with Trump administration officials and announced a series of business agreements at a ceremony organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Among the deals was a $2 billion agreement between Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, and a consortium of American companies in aluminum-related industries. Cisco signed a deal to provide digital solutions for Bahrain’s government telecommunications network.

Citing a free-trade agreement between the two countries, Prince Salman said Bahrain serves “as a gateway for American companies to access lucrative regional markets.”

The Prince said New Jersey-based SubCom won a contract to build an 800-kilometer (500-mile) multi-fiber submarine cable linking Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq. He also announced that direct commercial flights would soon begin between Bahrain and New York City.

Qatar, which is acting as a mediator in Gaza talks with Israel, Hamas and the U.S., caused a stir during Trump’s Mideast visit in May, when the Gulf state offered the President a $400 million plane to replace the aging Air Force One.

SelectUSA summit lures Gulf business to the Potomac

Gulf trade officials, executives and entrepreneurs have descended on suburban Washington D.C. this week for the SelectUSA Investment Summit, the U.S. government’s annual dog-and-pony show aimed at drumming up business partnerships around the world.

The four-day conference in National Harbor, Maryland, which drew close to 5,000 participants last year, kicked off on Sunday with a smorgasbord of panel discussions that included a “data dive” on foreign direct investment into the U.S. from the Middle East and Africa.

Representing the UAE at the U.S. Commerce Department-sponsored confab, is Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, and executives from some 35 Emirati companies. “With over $1 trillion invested across America, the UAE has already ‘Selected the USA,’ and we look forward to deepening this important trade and economic relationship,” Al Zeyoudi said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia, which generated $34 billion in bilateral trade with the U.S. last year, is active both on the summit floor and the sidelines, where officials from Riyadh attended meetings on Sunday held by the Saudi-U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreement Council.

Among other events surrounding SelectUSA are a session titled “Trade Opportunities between the Middle East and the United States,” which features participation from U.S. ambassadors stationed in Gulf countries, and the fifth GCC-U.S. Trade and Investment Dialogue Forum.