Sarkozy visit to Saudi has dual purpose

Caryle Murphy, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 18. 2009 12:35AM UAE / November 17. 2009 8:35PM GMT

Nicolas Sarkozy, centre, is welcomed by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in Riyadh yesterday. Philippe Wojazer / AFP

RIYADH // President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived here yesterday for a visit meant to deepen French political and economic ties with Saudi Arabia as part of his administration’s efforts to raise France’s profile in the oil-rich Gulf.

The one-day visit – Mr Sarkozy’s third to the kingdom in less than two years – is both low-key and high-intensity. Billed on both sides as more personal than public, there are no plans for announcements or unveilings of joint agreements during the visit.

At the same time, Mr Sarkozy will stay overnight at Janadriya, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz’s desert ranch on Riyadh’s northern outskirts. There, the two leaders will have the opportunity to engage in candid, heart-to-heart conversations mostly by themselves without large entourages on either side. The agenda for their discussions has not been disclosed but four topics undoubtedly will have high priority, starting with their mutual concern over the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and the perception that the US president Barack Obama has backed away from pressuring the Israeli government into halting settlement expansion.

“The deadlock … is extremely worrying” because it “plays into the hands of extremists and each day the chance of peace is slipping away a little”, the French president said in an interview published yesterday in Al Riyadh newspaper. “The priority is to restart as soon as possible the peace process.”

King Abdullah and Mr Sarkozy are also likely to discuss Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, as well as Saudi concerns about Iran’s ambitions to become the Gulf’s dominant power. Those concerns have deepened in recent days with growing signs that Tehran is seeking to take advantage of the two-week-old conflict between Saudi military forces and Yemeni rebels on the kingdom’s southern border with Yemen.

Riyadh suspects that the Yemeni rebels may be getting Iranian support in the form of money or arms. And last week Iran’s foreign minister publicly warned Saudi Arabia not to interfere in Yemen.

In his Al Riyadh interview, Mr Sarkozy addressed the Iranian nuclear issue, particularly Tehran’s dilly-dallying in responding to an October proposal from the International Atomic Energy Agency to supply Iran with uranium for peaceful purposes in return for it giving up the uranium it has secretly enriched.

“What counts are concrete actions, not talk,” said Mr Sarkozy. “Iranian leaders have an extraordinary opportunity to show their willingness to co-operate … They should not let it slip away. But, I repeat, the patience of the international community is not infinite.”

Another matter sure to be high on Mr Sarkozy’s list of talking points is increased trade and economic ties. This is a large part of what one observer called the French president’s “business-focused approach” towards the Gulf.

“We view France’s drive to become more involved in the Gulf during the Sarkozy era as an attempt not to only to push its political agenda but also to greatly enhance the chances for French firms to conduct business in a region where states are spending oil windfalls to build infrastructure, upgrade military technology and diversify energy resources,” wrote John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Riyadh’s Banque Saudi Fransi.

This “business-focused approach is bearing fruit,” he added, noting that France’s trade with Saudi Arabia had quadrupled since 2002. In addition, Mr Sfakianakis wrote, French direct investment in the kingdom “surged five-fold between 2000 and 2008”.

France’s largest commercial venture in Saudi Arabia is the US$12 billion (Dh44bn), 400,000-bpd Jubail oil refinery that France’s Total is building with Saudi Aramco, the country’s oil giant. Large Saudi infrastructure projects set to come online in the next five years in railways, electricity generation and communications offer more opportunities for French investment.

“Reinforcing our economic co-operation … is an essential element of our partnership,” Mr Sarkozy told Al Riyadh.

France, which opened its first military base in the region earlier this year in Abu Dhabi, would also like to sell more military equipment to the kingdom, including naval frigates and jet fighters. In 2008, Saudi Arabia was France’s third-biggest arms customer.

Another field France is eager to explore is nuclear energy. Saudi Arabia is considering launching a civilian nuclear programme to meet its burgeoning energy needs, but has not announced a decision. It has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Washington that gives it the option to purchase that technology from the United States.

France wants to conclude a similar agreement, and in June the French finance minister Christine Lagarde said the two countries could soon sign one, sparking speculation that it might occur during Mr Sarkozy’s visit. But informed sources now say that is not going to happen on this particular trip.

cmurphy@thenational.ae