Administration officials say they have recently seen the Saudis responding to US concerns including backing a fragile truce in Yemen, where the Riyadh-backed government is battling Iranian-linked Houthi rebels, and making tentative steps to improve relations with US ally Israel.
In a surprise, the Saudis earlier this month led an agreement by oil producers to boost output, a relief to Biden whose poll numbers have been battered by soaring gas prices which, however, have kept rising.
Dan Shapiro, who served as ambassador to Israel when Biden was vice president, noted that the 36-year-old crown prince is likely to be the key Saudi leader for years to come.
The visit comes as China increasingly looks to Gulf Arab nations, which have mostly rebuffed US efforts to isolate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
“President Biden has concluded correctly that the United States has more strategic interests that would be served by stabilizing the US-Saudi relationship,” said Shapiro, now at the Atlantic Council.
“It’s critical that, as we deal with challenges like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and China’s increasingly assertive stance globally, partners particularly in the Middle East, particularly energy-producing nations will align themselves with US interests.”
MBS had a far chummier relationship with former president Donald Trump, whose son-in-law Jared Kushner was said to chat with the prince over WhatsApp.
Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter that MBS “is working to build peace and prosperity for his country” and criticized Biden for sidelining him.
Experts said the crown prince was looking for the relationship to be back to business as usual.
Yasmine Farouk of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said that MBS had been personally offended by Biden, a critic of Saudi Arabia even before Khashoggi’s murder.
“The main thing MBS is looking for from a visit by Biden isn’t necessarily a breakthrough in military or defense cooperation, but political recognition and a kind of apology for ignoring him,” she said.