OSAKA, Japan — Barely a week ago, he was in theory a marked man, fingered by the United Nations as the probable mastermind behind one of the most grisly and sensational murders of recent years.

But Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has been wandering around the world stage in Japan the last couple of days hobnobbing with presidents and prime ministers as if he were just another leader deliberating on economics and energy.

No one is more important to Saudi efforts to rehabilitate their de facto ruler after the bone-saw killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi than President Trump, who joshed around with the crown prince during a summit photo session on Friday and hosted him for a personal breakfast on Saturday morning where he lavished praise on the prince as a reformer opening up his society.

“It’s like a revolution in a very positive way,” Mr. Trump told the crown prince. “I want to just thank you on behalf of a lot of people, and I want to congratulate you. You’ve done a really spectacular job.” Mr. Trump specifically complimented the crown prince for granting women the right to drive and for fighting terrorism.

Mr. Trump ignored questions by reporters about Mr. Khashoggi’s death and the crown prince’s apparent role in it, and made no mention of the Saudi government’s crackdown on dissent, including the prosecution of women’s activists and the recent arrests of intellectuals and journalists, including two with dual American citizenship. After breakfast, Mr. Trump went to a session on women’s empowerment.

Mr. Trump’s willingness to embrace Prince Mohammed as if nothing were wrong sent a powerful signal to the rest of the world and represented a cold-eyed calculation that America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia is more important than the death of Mr. Khashoggi, a longtime Saudi dissident who had been working as a columnist for The Washington Post and who had lived in the United States as a legal resident.

While Mr. Trump chatted briefly with Prince Mohammed on the sidelines of another summit meeting in Buenos Aires last November, this was their first formal meeting since Mr. Khashoggi’s death. The president and his team expressed no hesitance about making the crown prince one of just two world leaders invited to join Mr. Trump for a separate meal during his stay here in Osaka.

Mr. Trump’s own Central Intelligence Agency long ago concluded that the crown prince ordered the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, and a United Nations human rights investigator last week concluded that the destruction of evidence after the crime “could not have taken place without the crown prince’s awareness,” suggesting his complicity.

Just two days before the annual Group of 20 summit meeting opened in Osaka, the United Nations expert on extrajudicial killings called for an international investigation into Mr. Khashoggi’s death. Saudi officials have denied that the crown prince had any involvement in the killing. Mr. Trump has effectively taken them at their word.

“The president is embracing the most reckless and despotic ruler in Saudi history,” said Bruce Riedel, a former C.I.A. official now at the Brookings Institution and author of “Kings and Presidents,” about ties between Saudi and American leaders. “He has made the relationship with the Saudis a partisan political issue. If a Democrat wins in 2020, we are likely to face an existential crisis in the relationship over Khashoggi and Yemen.”

Human rights and journalism advocacy groups said Mr. Trump’s breakfast with Prince Mohammed would embolden autocrats around the world, making clear to them that they could repress and even assassinate journalists with impunity without being held accountable by the United States.

“Instead, President Trump’s efforts to excuse Khashoggi’s murder and discourage any investigation have made him an accessory after the fact to one of the most heinous crimes in recent history,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

But Mr. Trump has made clear that in his estimation, the relationship is more important than any single incident, telling NBC News last week that he did not want to jeopardize profitable arms sales to Saudi Arabia by speaking out on Mr. Khashoggi’s death.

Some foreign policy specialists said that was just the distasteful reality of international relations. American presidents, they said, have little choice but to interact with sometimes loathsome figures in the pursuit of larger goals vital to the national security of the United States. Saudi Arabia, they said, has been the linchpin of American influence in the Middle East and energy security for decades.

“It’s absolutely vital that the president confer closely with the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia — and be seen to be conferring openly and confidently,” said Michael Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. “Saudi Arabia is the most important Arab ally of the United States, an indispensable partner in the effort to contain and denuclearize Iran, and the most influential single actor in the Muslim world.”

It was not as if Prince Mohammed could look around the conference in Osaka and see only uncompromised figures. President Vladimir V. Putin has presided over a crackdown in Russia and has been blamed for the deaths of some journalists and political opponents. President Xi Jinping of China rules the largest state of repression in the world, one that has detained hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uighur Muslims, if not more, for high-pressure indoctrination.

But it was still striking to see Prince Mohammed moving about the room in his flowing white robes and traditional Saudi red-and-white checkered headdress smiling, shaking hands and sharing jokes with Mr. Trump and others. While in Buenos Aires in November, he was placed at the very edge of the official “family photo” of world leaders, almost as if cast to the side. But this year he was placed front and center, right between Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, the host.

Mr. Khashoggi was killed last October when he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, seeking papers to allow him to get married. A hit team flown in from Saudi Arabia awaited him, referring to him as the “sacrificial animal.” He was then dismembered with a bone saw and his remains have yet to be recovered.

The Saudi government initially lied about the murder, insisting that Mr. Khashoggi had left the consulate alive. Only after Turkey produced evidence to the contrary did the Saudis acknowledge his death and arrest suspects in the killing, some of whom had ties to Prince Mohammed.

But Saudi Arabia has blocked any effort to examine the chain of command. Agnès Callamard, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions for the United Nations human rights agency, found “credible evidence” that justifies the “investigation of high-level Saudi officials’ individual liability, including the crown prince’s.”

That seems unlikely to happen and it now appears Prince Mohammed may resume his role on the international stage without significant cost. He can be assured of a leading role in next year’s G20 meeting, too. After all, he is scheduled to host it.

Follow Peter Baker on Twitter: @peterbakernyt,

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