When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Washington this week, he shifted multiple paradigms.

In an increasingly multilateral world, Mr. Bin Salman, backed by US President Donald Trump, suggested that the kingdom is claiming its place at the table as a geopolitical and geoeconomic powerhouse.

US support gives (Mr. Bin Salman) more room to negotiate with big powers—US, China, and even Israel—on his own terms,” said analyst Hesham Alghannam.

Seen through a geopolitical lens, Mr. Bin Salman’s commercial dealings are about more than diversifying the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy and turning it into a 21st-century, cutting-edge knowledge society.

In Mr. Bin Salman's mind, the dealings are about putting Saudi Arabia on near-par with the United States, China, and India in a world that is multilateral rather than bipolar, with the US and China as the dominant powers, or tripolar, with India eventually added into the mix.