The United States and Saudi Arabia are set to sign an agreement to cooperate on developing a civil nuclear program in the oil-rich kingdom.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who is on his first official visit to Saudi Arabia as energy secretary, made the remarks at a press conference in the capital, Riyadh, on Sunday, after meeting with Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman earlier in the day.

Wright noted that the two countries are on “a pathway” to reaching a preliminary accord to work together on developing nuclear cooperation, adding that further details on the landmark agreement would be disclosed later this year.

“For a US partnership and involvement in nuclear here, there will definitely be a 123 agreement … there’s lots of ways to structure a deal that will accomplish both the Saudi objectives and the American objectives,” he said, referring to Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954 which outlines the process for major nuclear cooperation between Washington and other countries.

Wright further said that Saudi Arabia has yet to agree to the requirements under the act, which specifies nine non-proliferation criteria a state must meet to keep it from using the technology to develop nuclear weapons or transfer sensitive materials to others.

Saudi Arabia has long said that it would not agree to restrictions that would prevent uranium enrichment or the reprocessing of spent fuel, two technologies that can be used in the development of nuclear weapons, raising concerns among arms control experts and some members of the US Congress.

The prospective deal represents a significant shift from the strategy of former US President Joe Biden’s administration, which sought to tie such an agreement to the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

That condition appears to have been dropped now, with the current negotiations focused solely on energy collaboration.

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