Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Jul 16 (AP) President Joe Biden and Jordan's King Abullah met on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, with the White House announcing that the United States has committed to a new assistance package for Jordan of no less than USD 1.45 billion a year.

The announcement was made after the two leaders met on the sidelines of a wider regional summit in which Biden vowed that the U.S. will not walk away from Middle East's security and is not going to leave a vacuum for Russia, China or Iran to try and fill.

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Jordan, which hosts Palestinian and Syrian refugees, shares borders with Israel and the West Bank. Its stability is seen as crucial to the region, but its economy has struggled under the weight of inflation and from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government has faced public protests, and the king's brother, Prince Hamza, is under house arrest following a public rebuke of the country's leadership.

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In 2017, the U.S. committed to no less than USD 1.27 billion per year in bilateral foreign assistance to Jordan, beginning in 2018 and ending in 2022. The new annual package to Jordan is an adjustment of that annual U.S. support for the country. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)