The 2017 Riyadh summit was a series of three summits held on 20–21 May 2017 on the occasion of the visit of United States PresidentDonald Trump to Saudi Arabia, his first trip overseas. The summit included one bilateral meeting, between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and two multilateral meetings, one between the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the other with Arab and Muslim countries. Leaders and representatives of 55 Arab and Muslim countries were in attendance.
On May 20, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a US$350 billion arms deal with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The arms deal was the largest in world history. The transaction included tanks, combat ships missile defence systems, as well as radar, communications and cybersecurity technology. The transfer was widely seen as a counterbalance against the influence of Iran in the region. The arms transfer was described by news outlets as a "significant" and "historic" expansion of United States relations with Saudi Arabia.
King Salman and President Trump gave keynote addresses at the Arab Islamic American Summit. Trump called for Muslim leaders to "drive out" terrorism from their countries, and condemned Hamas and the Iranian government for their support of the government of Bashar al-Assad. Also speaking were President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, EmirSabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait, King Abdullah II of Jordan, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, and Prime MinisterNajib Razak of Malaysia. At the close of the summit the leaders inaugurated the new Global Center for Combating Extremism in Riyadh, intended as a centre of excellence for fighting violent extremism which is conducive to terrorism, involving a number of international counter-extremism experts. To officially open the center King Salman, President Trump, and President el-Sisi placed their hands on a glowing orb in the shape of a globe, which was cause for mirth among the international media.
: King Mohammed VI was scheduled to attend but cancelled his plans a week prior to the summit for unspecified reasons.
: President Omar al-Bashir declined to attend after officials at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh registered their objections to his planned attendance. President al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and war crimes.
Aftermath
Emboldened by Trump's criticism of Iran, many Arab countries decided to take action against their perceived enemies. Bahrain began cracking down on its Shi'ite majority, killing 5 and arresting 286 people. Bahrain also shut down an independent newspaper and outlawed country's last opposition group. On 5 June 2017, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen, Egypt and Bahrain all announced they were cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar. Hamid Aboutalebi, deputy chief of staff of Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, tweeted, "What is happening is the preliminary result of the sword dance," referring to Trump's conduct at the Summit.
Popular culture
An image of King Salman, U.S. President Trump, and Egyptian President el-Sisi touching an illuminated globe sparked a brief commotion on the Internet, particularly the social media website Twitter. Users dubbed the globe "the Orb" and made reference to various popular culture objects, such as the Palantír from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series and "The Orb of Peace" from . The Church of Satan also notably responded in a tweet informing users that touching "the Orb" was "not a Satanic ritual." The Atlantic's James Parker later wrote that "Every presidency has iconic photographs. But there’s nothing else like this one." Noticing that Americans wanted to have their picture taken with the Orb the Saudi government gave the Orb to the US embassy as a gift. Due to concerns that selfies with the orb would embarrass the embassy, the orb was put into storage.
