France, Saudi Arabia sign strategic partnership deal, call for new Lebanon elections

France’s President and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince have signed a strategic partnership deal in a meeting in the Kingdom this week, in which both leaders also called for new elections in Lebanon.

Following French President Emmanuel Macron’s arrival in Saudi Arabia yesterday for a three-day state visit, he met with Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, with his office announcing afterward the signing of a new partnership aimed at improving cooperation in “defence, energy transition, culture, mobility between the two countries”.

Accompanied by around 50 senior officials from major French companies including TotalEnergies, EDF, and Veolia, as well as start-ups in artificial intelligence and quantum physics, Macron’s deal with Bin Salman reportedly aims to “significantly strengthen” the two countries’ economic ties to “the height of our shared ambition”.

Paris and Riyadh also “agreed to make every effort to contribute to de-escalation in the region”, particularly with assisting in the consolidation of the fragile recent ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. Part of that aim is, and has been for the past year, to push for new elections in Lebanon, with a leadership in the country seen as a necessity amid the ongoing lack of a formal government.

“Together, they called for the holding of presidential elections in Lebanon with the aim of bringing the Lebanese people together and carrying out the reforms necessary for the stability and security of the country,” Macron’s office stated.

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