Biden begins historic Saudi trip with fist bump for crown prince

President Joe Biden began a visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday by giving Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a fist bump as Washington looks to reset its relationship with the Kingdom.

Biden was met by Prince Khalid al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca province, which includes the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

The US president then headed to the royal palace where Saudi TV showed him fist-bumping the crown prince.

The White House said Biden would hold a bilateral meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz at the royal palace in Jeddah and then the president and his team would have a working session with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi ministers at the palace.

Energy and security interests remain top of the agenda, however, the US national security adviser dampened expectations of any immediate oil supply boost to help bring down high costs of gasoline and ease the highest US inflation in four decades.

Jeddah will host a larger gathering of Arab leaders on Saturday.

Biden will discuss energy security with leaders of Gulf oil producers and hopes to see more action by OPEC+ to boost output, but there were unlikely to be any bilateral announcements from the talks, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters en route to Jeddah from Israel.

"We believe any further action taken to ensure that there is sufficient energy to protect the health of the global economy, it will be done in the context of OPEC+," said Sullivan. "We are hopeful that we will see additional actions by OPEC+ in coming weeks."

The OPEC+ group that includes Russia meets next on August 3.

Ahead of the visit, Saudi Arabia said it would open its airspace to all air carriers, paving the way for more overflights to and from Israel, in what Biden described as a historic and important step towards building a more integrated and stable Middle East.