Bahrain announces $17 billion in US deals during Trump talks

By Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - Bahrain's crown prince announced on Wednesday plans to invest more than $17 billion in the United States at a meeting with President Donald Trump focused on trade, Iran and regional security issues.

Under the plan, Bahrain signed a deal that a White House official said was valued at about $7 billion for its national carrier, Gulf Air, to buy 12 Boeing BA.N aircraft with an option for six more and 40 General Electric GE.N engines.

Bahrain's communications office released a statement on Thursday saying that under the agreement, Gulf Air will acquire 18 new B787 aircraft from Boeing. It said a memorandum of understanding was established to supply Gulf Air with 36 GE engines.

"We're very happy to be announcing $17 billion worth of deals that are coming to the United States," said Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. "And this is real. These aren't fake deals."

The announcement from Prince Salman came during an Oval Office visit on the heels of foreign investment deals Trump made during a trip to the Middle East in May. During a visit to Riyadh, Trump secured a $600-billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the United States and agreed to sell the Saudis an arms package worth nearly $142 billion.

Sunni-ruled Bahrain is an important security partner of the United States, hosting the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. It established ties with Israel in 2020 under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords, driven in part by shared concerns over Shiite-majority Iran. Bahrain's exports face a 10% baseline tariff under Trump's trade policies but have been spared larger levies imposed on other countries' exports.

Trump said the two men would privately discuss Iran, which is under pressure to resume nuclear talks with the U.S. as Washington and three major European countries have agreed to set the end of August as the deadline for a deal. Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last month, saying that they were part of a program geared towards developing nuclear weapons. Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes.

The U.S. official said the new Bahrain deal will support 30,000 American jobs and was secured with help from Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Bahrain is expected to sign deals with Oracle ORCL.N and Cisco CSCO.O, with plans to replace Chinese servers with Cisco products, the official said.

Bahrain also seeks to increase its investments in U.S. energy, tech, and manufacturing sectors.

The official said the crown prince intends to deploy capital to increase U.S. domestic aluminum production, invest in U.S. LNG production to secure energy supplies and purchase cutting-edge AI chips, partnering with U.S. hyperscalers.

During the visit, the crown prince signed various deals and memoranda of understanding confirming those arrangements.

One of these memos seeks to advance peaceful nuclear partnership between Bahrain and the U.S. It was signed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani during a State Department visit before the Oval Office meeting.

Later this year, the king of Bahrain will visit Washington to finalize these agreements and solidify the progress made in building the two nations' economic prosperity, the U.S. official said.