Engaging the Saudis Does Not Require Biden to Forgo Our Concern for Human Rights

Jun 22, 2022
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Also published in The Hill
Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Saudi Arabia
About the Authors
Ambassador Dennis Ross
Dennis Ross

Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute.

Articles & Testimony

The president will still be able to set boundaries with Riyadh—while also addressing other major issues such as national security, rampant energy costs, and normalization with Israel.

Precisely because the United States is in a longer-term competition now with Russia and China, we need to broaden the coalition of states that will work with us. Yes, we start with the other democracies, but we also need states that are not revisionist states, like the Saudis, to be part of the coalition. Their resources matter and alienating them is not smart, especially given what is at stake in this competition—whether we can preserve a rules-based system or Russia succeeds (with China’s tacit support) in redefining the international landscape in a way that threatens our interests and our values...

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