April 18, 2018
French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands Tuesday with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Photo: yoan valat/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Saudi Arabia will invest billions in aerospace, energy even as political ties suffer strain
April 18, 2018
French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands Tuesday with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Photo: yoan valat/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Saudi Arabia will invest billions in aerospace, energy even as political ties suffer strain
PARIS — Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman capped a three-day visit to France by breaking out the kingdom’s check book, unleashing a flurry of deals worth billions.
The accords, in sectors ranging from aerospace to energy, were part of an effort to thaw relations between Prince Mohammed and French President Emmanuel Macron. The two men held talks Tuesday in the Élysée Palace.
Ties between the leaders have grown tense over the Saudi leader’s sweeping purge of royal family members and business leaders with ties to France as well as Mr. Macron’s steadfast support for the international nuclear accord that provides sanctions relief to Saudi rival Iran in exchange for restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Flanking Mr. Macron at a news conference, the Saudi prince railed against the nuclear accord, saying Iran would be free to quickly assemble a nuclear bomb once restrictions imposed by the deal expire.
“I hope the French president understands this,” said Prince Mohammed, who is the kingdom’s day-to-day leader.
Mr. Macron said Iran was upholding its end of the deal, which France hadendorsed. “When you sign an accord you can’t be the one that doesn’t respect it,” he added.
Mr. Macron said France and Saudi Arabia needed to work together to “contain Iranian expansionism,” which includes its support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The French leader applauded Prince Mohammed’s efforts to modernize Saudi Arabia, saying French companies aimed to “accompany” the transformation.
Saudi Arabia’s low-cost carrier Flynas signed a $6.3 billion deal Tuesday with jet-engine supplier CFM International to purchase engines for 80 new aircraft supplied by Airbus.
Under the agreement, CFM International—a joint venture of France’s Safran SA and General Electric Co. —also will maintain and service the engines of Flynas’ new fleet, the companies sid.
Airbus is expected to start delivering the fleet of A320-neo jets to Flynas this year.
Flynas is partly owned by the billionaire Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, who was temporarily detained as part of an anticorruption campaign directed by Prince Mohammed last year. Prince al-Waleed, who has deep business ties to France, was released in January after settling for an undisclosed sum.
His conglomerate, Kingdom Holding Co., owns a 34% stake in Flynas.
Also on Tuesday, Saudi Aramco signed a $5 billion nonbinding agreement with French energy giant Total SA to build a petrochemical complex next to a refinery they jointly own in the Saudi city of Jubail.
Aramco, the kingdom’s state-owned oil company, holds a 62.5% stake in the 440,000 barrels-per-day refinery and Total the remaining 37.5%. The new complex would be integrated into the existing refinery, the companies said.
Courtesy/Source: WSJ
