Saudi Arabia’s Chief of General Staff, Lt. General Fayyad bin Hamid Al-Ruwaili received Wednesday General Mark A. Milley Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his accompanying delegation .

During the meeting, which took place at King Salman Air Base in the Central Sector, the two sides discussed joint cooperation and coordination between the two countries, especially in defense and military affairs, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Both sides emphasized on dealing with forms of terrorism to ensure the security and safety of the region, in addition to reviewing a number of issues and topics of common interest.

In another development, Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday its state budget of 2021 with a deficit of 141 billion riyals ($37.6 billion).

A royal decree approved by the cabinet on Tuesday estimated the revenues at 849 billion riyals and the expenditures at 990 billion riyals.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud told the cabinet that the Kingdom was affected, like the rest of the world, by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said that the budget aims to protect the health and safety of the Kingdom’s citizens and residents and to continue eliminating the effects of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry highlighted to the cabinet that the preliminary estimates for 2021 predicted the real GDP growth at about 3.2 percent, under the assumption that economic activities will continue to recover during the year.