President of France Emmanuel Macron and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud met on Thursday at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The crown prince serves as Saudi Arabia’s defense minister and second deputy prime minister.
It is reported from the French presidential palace that Macron and the crown prince expressed a mutual desire for the rapprochement of the countries and the promotion of solving local and global challenges such as climate change.
The decision-makers also discussed the war of aggression launched by Russia in Ukraine. Macron emphasized that active cooperation with Saudi Arabia is important to diversify the European energy field and to avoid a food crisis.
The press release from the presidential palace does not reveal the details of the energy-related discussion, but according to Al Jazeera, Macron’s aides had hinted before the visit that Macron would encourage Saudi Arabia to increase oil production.
In 2021, Saudi Arabia produced an average of 9.3 million barrels of oil per day, surpassing both the United States and Russia as the world’s largest oil producer.
Currently, Saudi Arabia produces about 10.5 million barrels of oil per day, but claims a total production capacity of 12-12.5 million barrels per day.
From a problem state to a friend?
Macron is not the first Western leader to try to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia. President of the United States Joe Biden visited the country in mid-July on his first tour of the Middle East.
Before his trip, Biden published an open letter in the Washington Post, in which he praised Saudi Arabia for its role in promoting community and peace in the Persian Gulf and for its efforts to balance the international oil market with other Opec countries.
“Saudi Arabia’s energy reserves are vital to mitigating the effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine on global supplies,” Biden wrote.
In Biden’s eyes, Saudi Arabia’s position in world politics seems to have changed since 2019, when Biden called the country a “problem basin” (pariah).
Many Western leaders strongly criticized Saudi Arabia for what happened in 2018 Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi of death. According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA, Khashoggi’s death was ordered by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman.
US and French attempts to normalize diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia have both received criticism, especially from human rights organizations.
Among other things, the Secretary General of Amnesty International Agnès Callamard questioned why the crown prince of Saudi Arabia is now being “rehabilitated” on Radio France’s broadcast.
According to Callamard, Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia showed that “the president of the United States did not know how to keep his promises, because he had said during his election campaign that he would not have any contact with Muhammad bin Salman.”
“I am scandalized and outraged that Emmanuel Macron welcomes the executioner of my fiance with all honor,” Cengiz said.
The United States and France are Saudi Arabia’s major arms suppliers
Both Biden and Macron emphasized even before their meetings with the crown prince that they would also highlight human rights during the discussions. Among other things, the promotion of peace in the Near East was also on the agenda of both.
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has led a military intervention in Yemen’s civil war, which is widely considered one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises.
Yemen is currently governed by a truce between the Saudi-led coalition and Iran-backed Houthi rebels, which began in April and which the groups agreed to extend in June.
Both France and the United States are among Saudi Arabia’s largest arms suppliers. Among Western countries, only Norway and Denmark have completely stopped exporting weapons to Saudi Arabia.
Several complaints have been filed in France about arms exports, but the country has never imposed restrictions on arms trade with Saudi Arabia. The United States has restricted the export of certain types of weapons, but still trades arms with the country.
According to a report by Project Plowshares, between 2015 and 2019, a good 70 percent of the weapons Saudi Arabia received came from the United States, and between 2015 and 2020, the United States traded arms with Saudi Arabia for more than $64 billion.
France, on the other hand, is estimated to be Saudi Arabia’s third largest arms supplier. In 2020, France’s arms exports fell by 41 percent overall, but Saudi Arabia still bought €704 million worth of arms from it, more than any other country in the same year.