White House defends Biden’s summer trip to Saudi Arabia after OPEC+ supply cut

President Joe Biden’s July trip to Saudi Arabia was “absolutely not” a waste of time, a White House spokesman said Wednesday in response to a question on that issue following news that a key panel has recommended the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies cut oil CL00, +1.68% production by 2 million barrels a day. “We said at the time, even before he left, that the trip was not about oil. It was about much larger … strategic, national-interest goals,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, during a Fox News interview. Kirby also said the Biden administration agrees that the U.S. needs to be less dependent on OPEC+ and other foreign producers of oil. Biden’s July visit was made as pressure was on for the U.S. to look to Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, for more barrels of crude amid high prices.