Nov. 19 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday evening that he was formally designating Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally, as he seeks to deepen relations, both militarily and economically, with the Islamic kingdom.

“I’m pleased to announce that we’re taking our military cooperation to even greater heights by formally designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally, which is something that is very important to them,” Trump said during his opening remarks at a state dinner held for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia at the East Room of the White House. It was filled with long tables lit by candlelight and decorated with white flowers.

In attendance were the wealthy and influential, including Appel CEO Tim Cook, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk, General Motors head Mary Barra, international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo and entrepreneur and investor David Sacks.

The announcement during the black-tie event followed the two leaders signing a number of agreements earlier in the day, including what Trump called a “historic strategic defense agreement.”

It comes as Saudi Arabia has made a large overture to foster relations with the United States during the Trump administraiton after relations cooled during the Biden administration over accusations that the crown prince was involved in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, as well as over other human rights concerns.

Trump has mostly attempted to brush concerns about Khashoggi’s killing aside. In May, Trump visited Saudi Arabia where the kingdom signed a $142 billion defense sales agreement for the United States to provide Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art war-fighting equipment and services, such as fighter jets.

On Tuesday, Trump said Saudi Arabia was increasing its previous $600 billion U.S. investment pledge to $1 trillion.

“A stronger and more capable alliance will advance the interests of both countries and it will serve the highest interest of peace and we all share in peace and we’ve never had and been so close to truly everlasting peace in the Middle East,” he said.

“All my life I’ve heard, ‘Oh, peace in the Middle East, but it’ll never happen.’ We did it,” he added despite there being several conflicts ongoing in the region, including the Yemen conflict, in which Saudi Arabia has played a major role. “Now we have to make sure it matures properly and is really as strong as we think it can be.”

Bin Salman briefly spoke following Trump, thanking him for the warm welcome and saying it continues the strong relationship between their two countries established in 1945 by then-U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and King Abdul Aziz.

“We’ve been since the last nine decade working together in many areas,” he said. “But today, it’s [a] special day. We think the horizon of the economical cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the [United States of] America, it’s bigger and winder in many, in many areas. We’ve been signing a lot of agreements that going to open the door to develop the relation deeper in many areas and we’re going to work on it. We believe the opportunities is huge.”

With the announcement, Saudi Arabia joins the more than 20 major non-NATO ally nations, including Argentina, Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Qatar, South Korea and others.

Some of the agreements signed Tuesday have raised concerns among Democrats about sharing important nuclear and military information with the kingdom.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said the United States can’t hand nuclear technology information to Saudi Arabia while it harbors nuclear weapons ambitions.

“I’m urging the Trump administration to insist on the ‘gold standard’ safeguards — enrichment bans and full inspections — before any deal,” he said in a statement.

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., accused Trump of corruption, saying the U.S. military guarantees are in exchange for the business deals Saudi Arabia has made with the Trump family business.

“No surprise Trump rolled out the red carpet for MBS,” Beyer said in a statement.

“The Saudis invested billions in Trump family businesses, so giving Saudi Arabia our most advanced fighter aircraft and maybe a NATO-esque security guarantee is the least he could do to pay them back.”