US President Joe Biden said Saturday that he aims to "strengthen a strategic partnership" with Saudi Arabia during a visit next week, but added that he will hold true to "fundamental American values."

In a Washington Post opinion piece published Saturday, Biden wrote that "I know that there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia."

"My views on human rights are clear and long-standing, and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad, as they will be during this trip," he claimed.

Biden will in fact meet MBS

While Biden is expected to press for increased Saudi oil production in the hope of taming spiraling fuel costs and inflation at home, his visit signals a shift: an apparent abandoning of efforts to isolate the kingdom's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), over the murder of a Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

As a presidential candidate, Biden said that the 2018 murder of Khashoggi had made the country a "pariah".

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US intelligence findings released by the Biden administration identified bin Salman as the mastermind of the operation.

Last month Biden had sought to distance himself from the upcoming encounter, telling reporters he was going to meet with King Salman and his team. But the White House confirmed earlier this week that he will meet MBS as part of that larger delegation during the trip.

"New & more promising chapter" of US engagement in Middle East

"As president, it is my job to keep our country strong and secure," the US President wrote Saturday in the Washington Post.

"We have to counter Russia’s aggression, put ourselves in the best possible position to outcompete China, and work for greater stability in a consequential region of the world," he added.

"To do these things, we have to engage directly with countries that can impact those outcomes. Saudi Arabia is one of them, and when I meet with Saudi leaders on Friday, my aim will be to strengthen a strategic partnership going forward that's based on mutual interests and responsibilities, while also holding true to fundamental American values," Biden indicated.

He will also visit "Israel" and the West Bank during his July 13-16 trip, which he wrote will "start a new and more promising chapter of America's engagement" in the Middle East.

US administration will increase diplomatic & economic pressure on Iran

The US leader claimed that the region was "more stable and secure" than when he took over the US presidency in January 2021, citing in particular recent thaws in relations between the Israeli occupation and some Arab states.

"These are promising trends, which the United States can strengthen in a way no other country can," Biden said. 

Regarding the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, which was abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump in 2018, Biden wrote in the Washington Post that "My administration will continue to increase diplomatic and economic pressure until Iran is ready to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, as I remain prepared to do," Biden wrote.