France and the UAE have become perfect partners

Emile Hokayem

• Last Updated: May 25. 2009 12:56AM UAE / May 24. 2009 8:56PM GMT

In his two years at the Elysée Palace, the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who arrives in Abu Dhabi this evening for a state visit, has pursued an activist foreign policy that could give his nation a privileged position among external powers active in the Middle East.

Unsurprisingly, the Arab world remains an area of immense importance for France. For decades, its geographic proximity, colonial history and shared economic and strategic interests have compelled France to pursue a realistic, non-ideological approach to the region better known as its “politique arabe”. Interventionism was not a driver of its dealings with Arab states. Instead, France built with established, sometimes authoritarian regimes, relations that guaranteed its business opportunities and strategic relevance. Outside the Levant, however, France remained a secondary power compared with the UK and later the US, especially in the increasingly wealthy and strategic Gulf region.

More recently, however, the region has experienced deep transformations. Islamic extremism’s global reach has made addressing the political backwardness and economic underperformance of the Arab world an urgent need. America’s changing role and the meteoric rise of the Gulf’s influence have also opened new room for greater French engagement in the region. Mr Sarkozy now faces the difficult task of calibrating French interests within this changing context.

Breaking with a traditional French wariness toward Washington’s grand visions, the French president has embraced a decidedly pro-American outlook. Even in the Middle East, traditionally a zone of competition between Paris and Washington, there is a convergence of views. Whether this alignment proves to be a winning bet as US influence in the region weakens remains to be seen. Still, it is noteworthy that the Middle East has become a zone of co-operation between the US and France given their history of rivalry.

Since moving into the Elysée, Mr Sarkozy has conducted an energetic foreign policy with overtures to Libya, Iraq and Syria, a spectacular rapprochement with Qatar, mediation efforts in Lebanon and a hard-line approach on Iran. This occasionally overdone diplomatic activism has been met with both praise and derision at home, reflecting to a large extent Mr Sarkozy’s stated ambition to shake a slumbering middle power.

So far, however, his record has been mixed. In search of a big idea during the French presidency of the European Union, Mr Sarkozy advocated a Union for the Mediterranean to build an improbable Mediterranean future, only to see his European partners gasp at the grandiosity of such a project. The Union today seems to have lost its wind and consists essentially of praiseworthy developmental projects that lack political coherence and high-level attention.

In September 2008, Mr Sarkozy orchestrated a summit in Damascus that brought Syria and France together with Qatar and Turkey. This unlikely if ephemeral axis was Mr Sarkozy’s attempt to insert France into Middle East geopolitics and peace diplomacy, but it ran into enduring challenges. Relations between Paris and Ankara have been tense as Mr Sarkozy opposes Turkey’s accession to the EU. And the rationale in Mr Sarkozy’s outreach to Syria was partly to shepherd a US opening to Damascus. But with Damascus primarily interested in normalisation with the US and confident that its allies in Lebanon are poised to win the upcoming elections there, concessions obtained by France have been essentially tactical in nature.

By building a close relationship with Qatar, a rich albeit small state with complex regional relations, and rushing to Damascus at a time when Saudi-Syrian relations were at a nadir, Mr Sarkozy ruffled powerful Saudi Arabia. Relations between the two countries are improving, but some in the Arab world and in Paris have questioned the wisdom of investing so much into relationships that are bound to irritate the Middle East’s heavyweights.

At the same time, France has reopened channels with Iraq under Mr Sarkozy’s leadership after tensions with the US led to a long absence of French power there. Now that the US has announced a drawdown, France can bring legitimacy to international initiatives aimed at stabilising Iraq. France, once a close partner of Iraq, has every interest to support this process and position itself as a privileged partner of Iraq.

Mr Sarkozy has secured regional credibility by adopting a tough line on Iran. France’s repeated denunciations of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, leading diplomatic role at the IAEA and the UN, support for multilateral but also unilateral sanctions and its hints that more coercive measures will be needed to confront Iran all contribute to a strong French position. Underlying France’s stance on Iran is an acute fear of the non-proliferation regime unravelling and of a nuclear arms race at Europe’s door.

In this troubled context, the French venture in the UAE, which a senior French official calls his country’s most ambitious undertaking in recent times, distinguishes itself in its coherence, novelty and multidimensionality. France’s military base in the UAE will complement an already substantial presence here. French cultural and educational institutions already have a home here and the UAE’s ambitious plans for nuclear energy are also an area of potential partnership. Importantly, France and the UAE are linked by a defence agreement that obligates France to come to the UAE’s aid. And their defence establishments are already intimately linked through procurement practices and joint military exercises.

For the UAE, the French rapprochement fits with a larger vision to diversify and deepen relations with world powers in order to gain protection and clout. France has no colonial baggage in the Gulf, nor the political toxicity of the US. Rather, with a first class military, nuclear status, technological and industrial prowess and a seat at the UN Security Council, France makes a perfect strategic partner for the UAE.

For the moment, the two countries proceed from a realistic assessment of each other’s intentions and potential. While there is not yet much emotional or historical texture to the relationship, this, both countries hope, will emerge through further educational and cultural exchanges and personal interaction. Since high-level politics are deeply personal matters in the Gulf, Mr Sarkozy will have to invest his persona and presidential prestige to cultivate this relationship, just as the UAE will have to entrust in France the status of a privileged partner.

ehokayem@thenational.ae