From Paris to Riyadh, Since 1839
They say that old wines get better with age and so do
relationships. France celebrated its 175 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in
2014. Marking one of the longest presence in any nation.
From the first meeting between General de Gaulle in 1967
and then King, Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, we have evolved of a better,
stronger and deeper standard of personal relations with the French government
and the people.
The present President of France, Mr. Francois Hollande has
been closely associated with the Kingdom since his election in 2012. On his last
year’s visit to the Kingdom, he met the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King
Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, the relationship has without a doubt grown over these 50
years.
Honored as the guest during the GCC summit, President of
France invigorated the meet with his presence. It revived the strategic partnership
the two nations share.
Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, Interior Minister of the
Kingdom visited France last year after accessing the throne where he received
the ‘Legion of Honor’, the highest honor in France.
These ‘honors’ to each other speak for itself as to what
bond Paris and Riyadh have.
Recently, the visionary Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman decided
to visit France and discussed a dozen ideas pertaining to the Saudi vision
2030.
He also emphasized on the development of the bilateral
relations between the two great nations.
The Crown Prince as well as the Deputy Crown met the French
President Hollande, Prime Minister Manuel Valls and many other renowned
officials.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, Defense Minister and Jean-Marc,
International Development Minister were also among the many diplomats who
discussed with the Royals.
France shares a similar view point like that of Riyadh on
Middle East issues like Syria, Iraq, Iran and demands similar peace process
towards the same.
This could be seen such that the conservative Kingdom’s
Shoura Council and the France’s Parliament have had a strong and deep bond and an
intense understanding on various issues. This happened over years and with
multiple visits by both sides.
The continuous interaction between Paris and Riyadh are the
depiction of the bilateral and strategic inquisitiveness each of them have
towards a common goal.
The meeting between the Royals and the French President was
an aim to achieve commonness and a prolonged sense of stability and longevity
benefitting both nations.
This could be seen in the various recent meetings,
especially the one in May, 2015. After which Prince Mohammad Bin Sultan, the
main brain behind Saudi vision 2030 and Jean-Marc Ayrault, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, France held two joint committees, co-chaired by these two. The 3rd
one being held just a while ago. It focused on the determining the common goals
and ways to deepen the relationship and bilateral relations. Also, the pivotal
of the meeting would be enhancing and improving the new concepts and prospects
of the National Transformation Program (NTP) as adopted to be implemented by
2020.
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman with President
Hollande of France.
President Hollande has appreciated the socio-economic
reforms of the NTP by the Saudi government under the vision 2030 program and
assured his presence throughout along with the private investors as well as
joining the Saudi citizens in these times of ‘economy switching’, i.e. transforming
from oil dependence to non-oil dependence.
Of all the committees, the one in October last year held in
Riyadh was one of a kind as the Prime Minister of France led a delegation
including various leaders from different branches at the Saudi French Business
Forum. This was an appreciable step by Mr. Manuel Valls indicating how serious
they are in working along with the oil rich Kingdom.
This historic forum included 130 French firms and included
around 2,000 attendees. Not only this, the French consulate had organized
business gatherings which included top business leaders from Saudi as well
France in the capital in order to work and improve the Saudi business ideas and
investments in various sectors of the economy.
France has confirmed its participation and alliance with
the visionary Arabia in its implementation of National Transformation Program
2020. This bond is also focusing on the nucleus of health care, agriculture
along with the infrastructures, sports and cultural education too between the
two great civilizations. Information and technology is another pivotal of the
Saudi Prince’s idea of the educated youth of the country. While the other developments
would be water, housing, tourism and heritage.
France is also willing to work with the defense and energy
related side of Riyadh.
France, being among the top 3 investors in the Kingdom has
invested $15.3 billion as FDI (foreign direct investment). Not to forget, it
was France that introduced the concept of Geant to Saudi Arabia around a decade
ago. It was a different thing that Prince Waleed Bin Talal took over it soon
after. Presently, they have a little less 100 subsidiaries working in Saudi Arabia.
CAC 40 (Paris Index) are one of the many big groups.
These subsidiaries have a whopping number of 27,600
employees which include 10,000 Saudis.
France alone has 20 plus Saudi Arabian invested companies.
The number of employees in there are around 3,200 as per estimates with a
turnover of 350 million euros as per Bertrand Besancenot, French Ambassador to
the Kingdom.
The reason of the closeness between the two countries is
also because as per speculations, Kingdom’s oldest ally, U.S wasn’t promising
enough on various issues pertaining to the region, mostly the Iranian nuclear
program. U.S had been the oldest and one of the closest ally of the Kingdom
since 1945.
In order to enhance the economic and political relations in
times when U.S, their closest friend doesn’t seem to be promising enough,
France would be a wise option to supplant the age old U.S. Though not
completely as the main ally, France can be the main supplier of the advanced
military technology for the oil rich Kingdom in the near future considering the
relationship the two countries share.
With the nuclear deal 3 years ago, France has been with
Saudi Arabia ever since, be it not favoring Tehran on trusting of the nuclear
power as well as questioning Iran on its commitment to end the ability of
building a nuclear bomb.
Though it’s a little early to comment on the Paris-Tehran
relationship, propinquity of Paris with Riyadh might be impacting the pressure
on the former’s relation. It cannot be denied that during the P5+1 talks,
France is said to have taken the toughest stance against Iran’s nuclear
programs which didn’t go unnoticed by Saudi leaders.
Paris has been one of the oldest allies to the Kingdom
which has been built over mutual consent over the years. The first French
Embassy in Jeddah dates back to 19th Century.
This was visible with the tweets that started flowing in
from the French officials just after the
terrorist attacks carried out in Jeddah, Madinah and Qatif in Ramadan, as
France was among the first of the many countries to condemn these horrific
incidents just hours after the disastrous blasts. They even emphasized the
Kingdom’s religious sacredness and that it is the only nation that represents
Islam and Muslims in the best form to the outside world and that terrorists and
terrorism belong to no specific belief. It assured its steadfastness in times
like these and promised to fight alongside the Islamic Kingdom against terror
plotters.
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s recent visit to
France and his meet with President Francois Hollande in Elysee was a speculated
amidst the media that both, Paris and Riyadh are nigh to each other and that
there is a growing compatibility between the two on the sundry topics in the
region.
This was seen during the assemblage of the delegation of
the young and vibrant Prince Mohammed and associates with that of the French
officials which included Prime Minister Manuel Valls and many other leaders
from the public as well as the private sector.
This trip came into effect just after Prince Mohammad’s
delegation visited the U.S.
It is reported that a number of serious and worrying
situations in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon were discussed. France also took the
initiative to launch peace talks between the age old Israel –Palestine
conflict.
Both the sides exchanged their views on issues and mutual
interests and discussed all the possible ways to tackle the upcoming Daesh and
lauded the possible efforts needed in the region of Iraq-Syria to counter these
sorts of terrorist acts.
The 2 are committed and have assured each other’s side in
the long run towards a tough stance on terrorism and strength their
international security and stability.
As per reports, the 2 are also focused on working and
bringing into force the formation of an anti-terrorist Islamic Military
Alliance to combat terrorism.
Working towards a credible political solution with regard
to the ongoing 5 year old crisis in Syria, France and Saudi Arabia want to have
negotiations between the Syrian parties, as per the Geneva statement and the solutions
presented by the United Nations Security Council.
Providing free and immediate aid to the bereaved and displaced
Syrians in the war is the main stress by Paris and Riyadh together.
In order to reduce the tension in the region, they have also
agreed to support the Iraqi government for a final solution towards the
catastrophe. Emphasizing on a national reconciliation program involving all the
sectors and components of the society there in. One year old Yemen war was also
among the top discussions. The grave deteriorating condition was also a grave
concern as expressed by the two allies.
The above talks could be conferred that Paris was willing
to initiate every step towards peace in the region along with KSA.
Lebanon’s general elections were also one of the various
topics of discussions which will play an important role in the regional
stability.
Saudi Arabia is keen to keep up the momentum along with
Paris officials for the future stability condition in Middle East and the
ongoing happenings. France, along with Saudi Arabia has also been a continuous
condemner of Iran over its interference in the affairs of the Arab world.
The relation between the two seems impregnable as France is
functioning as closely as possible with the Islamic Arabia to know its future
socio-economic plans and projects and assist it in its National Transformation
Plan of 2020 along with the delegates of the country and its officials.
One of the leading newspapers, Alsharq Al Awsat reported
that the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF) is also among one of the
many leading partners in Saudi’s National Transformation Program along with
other public and private sectors. France is the top third among the top 3
foreign investors in the Kingdom.
All in all, Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s visit to France
recently deep rooted the friendship. This had come after King Salman Bin Abdul-Aziz
had been to Paris in 2014, after which the relationship had blossomed.
Last year’s joint committee meeting in Riyadh was seen as a
tremendous step towards a joint initiation and planning of a better future for
both the nations together.
In the meeting, there were nearly 1000 business leaders and
associates both, from France as well as Saudi Arabia. Attended by the Prime
Minister of France, the event was an appreciable one.
One of the French business entrepreneurs even went to the
extent of saying Saudi Arabia was the ‘main partner’ and that it had an
influential place in the World Organization for Trade.
Desirous to work along, the French businessman said that
they had the best possible proposals for the Kingdom’s needs and that it would
be great for both the countries to work together as both had their visionary
ideas, referring to the much talked about vision of Saudi Arabia.
French officials have been reported saying that Prince
Mohammed’s visit to the U.S and then to France held an important place and that
it had come at about the right time when it was much needed.
French sources have also revealed that this was a much
awaited meet and that it holds ‘double importance’ as it involves Saudi vision
2030 as well as National Transformation Plan 2020.
Indeed, the process is slow but cannot be denied that these
two great nations have come hand in hand to combat various fumed up issues and
would settle terrorism once for all with the kind of continuous meetings they have
been holding.
Nevertheless, this is certainly going to be a cherry on the
top for the nation’s vision of 2030.
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