Biden Will Meet With the Leader of Qatar to Discuss the Energy Crisis
President Joe Biden is hosting the ruling leader of Qatar at the White House on Monday as he looks for the gas-rich nation to step up once again to help the West as it faces the prospect of a European energy crunch if Russia invades Ukraine.
Qatar played a central role in aiding last summer’s U.S. military evacuations of Afghan helpers and U.S. citizen in Afghanistan, hosts the biggest American air base in the Middle East and served as a go-between with the Taliban for the last three U.S. administrations as they tried to wind down America’s longest war.
Now, with some 100,000 Russian troops massed at the Ukraine border, experts say Qatar — the world’s second-biggest exporter of liquified natural gas, or LNG — is eager to help Biden again but might only be able to offer limited assistance if Russia further disrupts the flow of energy supplies to Europe.