That status allows a country expedited access to US military hardware, sales and other cooperation without some of the elaborate licensing protocols that other buyers of advanced American weapons systems need to go through. Saudi Arabia joins 19 other countries that are major non-NATO allies of the US: Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, South Korea, Thailand and Tunisia. The US also treats Taiwan at par with major non-NATO allies.
Separately, the White House announced that Trump and MBS signed a strategic defence agreement “that strengthens our more than 80-year defense partnership and fortifies deterrence across the Middle East”. Details of the agreement are unclear, but the White House said it would secure “new burden-sharing funds from Saudi Arabia to defray US costs” and would affirm that the “Kingdom views the United States as its primary strategic partner”.
