Saudi Arabia and the US signed a declaration during Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s visit to Washington this week that could pave the way to a civil nuclear program in the kingdom. The Joint Declaration on the Completion of Negotiations on Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation signed on 18 November confirmed that the US and American companies will be the partners of choice for a Saudi civil nuclear program, according to a White House statement.
The kingdom has set its sights on joining the UAE and Iran as regional powers with nuclear power plants (see chart 1). In September 2024, Saudi Arabia and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) signed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Country Programme Framework (CPF) for the period 2024-2027. However, Saudi Arabia’s desire to enrich uranium domestically has been a stumbling block in negotiations with the US, which prioritizes nonproliferation as a central geopolitical tenet. (CONTINUED - 849 WORDS)
