Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says his relationship with US President Donald Trump remains good, calling Trump's claim that Saudi Arabia wouldn't last for two weeks without the US a “misunderstanding.”
The crown prince told Bloomberg's Senior Executive Editor for Economics Stephanie Flanders and five other Bloomberg journalists on Wednesday that Trump's demand that Riyadh pay up for the military support it receives was a misunderstanding that happens between friends.
Iranian FM Zarif to Saudi Arabia: Trump ‘Humiliates' You, But We Extend Our Hand
“Well, you know, you have to accept that any friend will say good things and bad things. So you cannot have 100 percent of friends saying good things about you, even in your family,” he said.
Bin Salman also noted that the two-week timeframe was “not accurate,” as Saudi Arabia existed long before the United States of America was a country. “Saudi Arabia needs something like around 2,000 years to maybe face some dangers,” he quipped.
Saudi Arabia “will pay nothing” for its security, as all the arms it had purchased from the US for that purpose have been paid for, he noted. According to the Saudi armament strategy for the next 10 years, which was adopted after Trump became president, more than 60 percent of its arms are to be supplied by or manufactured in partnership with the United States.
