Trump said he was “taking our military cooperation to even greater heights” by granting the designation to Saudi Arabia.
US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman speak on the colonnade of the White House in Washington, DC, the United States, on November 18, 2025.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday designated Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally, reviving a decades-long strategic partnership when the two countries signed sweeping agreements on arms sales, civil nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence and critical minerals.
The designation signals a return to traditional ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia. While it does not provide the mutual defense guarantees enjoyed by NATO members, it grants the kingdom significant economic, military and defense benefits, a status that the United States reserves for strategically important countries outside the Atlantic alliance. Pakistan received this designation from Bush after September 11, 2004.
The meeting underscored Trump’s determination to prioritize ties between the world’s largest economy and its top oil exporter, even as international outcry over the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has gradually faded from diplomatic discourse.
Trump said he was “taking our military cooperation to even greater heights” by granting the designation to Saudi Arabia, adding that US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June had made the kingdom more secure.
Saudi Arabia paid a high price for that honor and became the twentieth country on the list. Under a Strategic Defense Agreement that “strengthens deterrence across the Middle East,” Riyadh has committed to new burden-sharing funds to offset American costs while making it easier for American defense companies to operate in the kingdom.
The countries also completed negotiations on civil nuclear energy cooperation, which the White House described as the legal basis for a long-term nuclear energy partnership, an agreement that has raised concerns among nonproliferation experts given Saudi Arabia’s previous statements about the possibility of pursuing nuclear weapons.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has pledged to increase Saudi investment in the United States to $1 trillion, far above a previous commitment of $600 billion.
The agreements represent a major diplomatic victory for Trump, who has made courting Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies a central element of his Middle East strategy in his second term. The designation puts Saudi Arabia in the company of countries such as Israel, Japan, South Korea and Australia, although unlike NATO members, Riyadh will not be covered by the alliance’s collective defense clause.
With additional information from Reuters
