2023-06-16 05:28:03
Mohammed Ben Salmane (aka MBS) wants to take advantage of the moment. The Saudi crown prince is enjoying his return to favor on the international scene after the sinister sequence “Jamal Khashoggi”, this Saudi opponent assassinated in Turkey in 2018. Arrived on an official visit to France on Wednesday June 15, the strong man from Riyadh must stay there a good week until the Summit for a new global financial pact organized by the Élysée on June 22 and 23.
His agenda is dense, and not all of his appointments are known, but MBS has his habits in France, where he owns a sumptuous property, the Louis XIV castle in Louveciennes, near Versailles. In Paris, the Saudi leader will find the one who was the first Western leader of weight to receive him, in December 2021, after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi: Emmanuel Macron. A meeting perceived at the time as an important step in his rehabilitation, now confirmed.
The two men, who had seen each other again at a dinner in July 2022, will meet again this Friday, June 16 for a working lunch, during which they will discuss the war in Ukraine, Russia and issues of regional stability. Lebanon, which still waiting for an executive and where Paris and Riyadh have old interests, will notably be on the menu. “Even if the visit of the head of Saudi diplomacy, scheduled for the next day in Tehran, has more weight in the Lebanese file than that of MBS in Paris”tempers the Gulf specialist Marc Lavergne, research director at the CNRS.
“A man-to-man relationship”
Lebanon remains the country that linked the two men in such a special way. “There is a personal dimension linked to a founding moment between them, when Emmanuel Macron went to Riyadh to ‘liberate’ You get Hariri in 2017, it was a strong political gesturedeciphers the CNRS expert, with reference to the sequence of November 2017, when the French president helped the Lebanese prime minister to leave Arabia where he was “detained”. Since then, they have maintained a very strong man-to-man relationship. They are more or less of the same generation and have the same outlook on the world, wanting to make a revolution in a society they consider conservative. »
MBS did not choose France by chance to lead a charm offensive. The imposing 30-year-old, who is multiplying the candidatures for the organization of major world sporting events, intends to formalize and promote that of Riyadh for the Universal Exhibition of 2030, during a ceremony organized on June 19 at the Grand Palais. Winning the pawn over Ukraine, Italy and Korea, during the vote scheduled for November, would allow him to resonate this great international celebration with the end of “Vision 2030”, his vast plan of economic and societal reforms, intended to make Saudi Arabia exist beyond its status as a petromonarchy. “We can imagine that France is happy to activate symbolic levers, through the Arab World Institute and Unesco, because it gives it prestige to be able to help Saudi Arabia in this way”believes Marc Lavergne.
825 executions in 2022
Even though Riyadh is increasingly looking eastward, as evidenced by the $10 billion investment deals announced with Beijing on June 11, Paris remains a significant trading partner. (read the marks). “France sells what it can, including weapons, but Macron is above all looking for foreign investors, who represent for him the salvation of France”, notes the geopolitical scientist. Accompanied by six ministers, including those of trade and investment, Mohamed ben Salmane should notably make a passage, in the coming days, at the Bourget Air Show.
MBS’s stay in France is also part, at the diplomatic level, of a sequence of affirmation and emancipation vis-à-vis his American ally. Riyadh thus appears as the guarantor of regional stability, since the major rapprochement concluded in March with Iran under the aegis of China. Saudi Arabia, which is also mediating in the war in Sudan, will organize an international conference on June 19 to coordinate humanitarian aid there.
An activism that would almost eclipse the recriminations, however regular, in terms of human rights. The kingdom has thus never executed so many death row inmates since 2017, with 825 put to death in 2022, according to Amnesty International. In December 2021, Emmanuel Macron said “don’t endorse anything” et ” to be demanding “ by receiving it. Have times changed? “This message from Macron on human rights was a speech for the use of the French, ahead Marc Lavergne. It’s the least of his worries, he’s not going to bother MBS about it. »
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Strong increase in French exports
– In 2022, trade in goods between France and Saudi Arabia amounted to €10.7 billionup 74%, according to the Directorate General of the Treasury.
– French exports increased by 41% to 4 billion eurosespecially thanks to the aeronautics sector (1.7 billion euros).
– Imports from Saudi Arabia reached €6.73 billionup 101%, driven by oil purchases.
– Last year, Saudi Arabia was the 29th customer from Francea gain of six places compared to 2021, and its 25th supplier, up seven places.
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