On 22 July, Saudi Arabia and the US were celebrating a landmark nuclear cooperation agreement that the US Department of Energy said would “lay the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership.” The ‘123 agreement’ was accompanied by a bilateral safeguards agreement, and was a major step forward for Saudi Arabia’s plans to build a nuclear power plant. It followed a Joint Declaration on the Completion of Negotiations on Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation in November, and would see US firms lead the development (MEES, 21 November 2025).
Saudi Arabia is making a concerted effort to develop its own nuclear capabilities, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on 23 July that essentially the US doesn’t want to be sidelined from the process: “…we’re not the only country in the world that offers nuclear technology. And when countries decide that they want to pursue a peaceful civil nuclear program, we’d prefer they do it with us than do it with some other country. It allows us to have influence over the direction that it goes. It allows us to make sure that there are safeguards in place, things of this nature.” (CONTINUED - 255 WORDS)