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Qatar Plans to Buy Boeing Aircraft in ‘Large’ Deal, Trump Says

Qatar Plans to Buy Boeing Aircraft in ‘Large’ Deal, Trump Says

(Bloomberg) -- Qatar plans to purchase aircraft from Boeing Co., said President Donald Trump, who described the deal as a “large transaction” that would be signed Tuesday.

Trump didn’t indicate whether Qatar was signing a new agreement, or following up on previous agreements, including a $1.8 billion deal announced last month at the Paris Air Show for five Boeing-777 freighters. That sale wasn’t listed in Boeing’s June orders, meaning the final contracts hadn’t been signed.

“It’s a transaction that will be purchasing a lot of Boeing jets and a lot of money spent in our country and that means a lot of jobs,” Trump told reporters at the White House, where he was meeting with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

The deal comes amid a two-year economic blockade of Qatar led by U.S. ally Saudi Arabia and supported by nations including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Trump appeared to initially support the Saudi move even though it put the U.S. in an awkward position because it has a major military base in Qatar.

But Qatar has looked to improve relations in the U.S., with the emir saying the country was committed to doubling the economic partnership between the two nations. Mansoor bin Ebrahim Al Mahmoud, who leads the Qatar Investment Authority, said earlier this year that the country’s sovereign wealth fund will look to increase its U.S. investment portfolio from around $30 billion to about $45 billion over the next two years.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alyza Sebenius in Washington at asebenius@bloomberg.net;Julie Johnsson in Chicago at jjohnsson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Bill Faries

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