Gulf: France signs a weapon megadeal with the United Arab Emirates as Macron tours the Gulf

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Gulf: France signs a weapon megadeal with the United Arab Emirates as Macron tours the Gulf - India News Republic

Dubai: France announced on Friday a multi-billion euro deal to sell fighters and helicopters to the United Arab Emirates. It aims to strengthen military cooperation with the top allies in the Persian Gulf, amid common concerns about Iran. The United Arab Emirates has 80 upgraded Rafale fighters...

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Gulf: France signs a weapon megadeal with the United Arab Emirates as Macron tours the Gulf​

karanpatil2 weeks ago

Dubai: France announced on Friday a multi-billion euro deal to sell fighters and helicopters to the United Arab Emirates. It aims to strengthen military cooperation with the top allies in the Persian Gulf, amid common concerns about Iran.

The United Arab Emirates has 80 upgraded Rafale fighters in a deal that the French Ministry of Defense has stated is worth 16 billion euros ($ 18 billion) and is the largest French export weapons contract to date. I am buying a machine. It also announced a contract with the UAE to sell 12 Airbus combat helicopters.

They hit the French defense industry after Australia’s $ 66 billion contract to buy 12 French submarines that finally went to the United States collapsed. And allies in the area.

The United Arab Emirates contract was signed when French President Emmanuel Macron visited the country at the first stop of a two-day visit to the Persian Gulf. France and the Gulf countries have long been concerned about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and their impact on the region as a whole, especially in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

France has particularly deep ties to the UAE, the seven Emirates of the Arabian Peninsula. There is a naval base in France, and French military aircraft and personnel are also stationed at major facilities on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, the capital of Emirati.

In a statement announcing the helicopter transaction, the French Ministry of Defense shared the purpose of using “similar defense equipment” and cooperated more closely, “promoting operational cooperation between the two forces.” Stated.

Emirati authorities confirmed the contract. Manufacturer Dassault Airlines said the UAE has purchased an upgraded version of the multirole Rafale fighter. This will make the Emirates Air Force the first Rafale F4 user outside France.

Dassault boss Eric Trappier called the sale a “French success story” and “great news for France and its aviation industry.”
This purchase represents a significant increase in the UAE’s military strength in oil and gas abundant areas. “The fighters will significantly improve the UAE’s air power in terms of strikes, air-to-air warfare, and reconnaissance,” said Charles Forrester, senior analyst at Janes.
Dassault said Rafale will provide the UAE with “a tool that can guarantee sovereignty and operational independence” and will begin delivering planes in 2027.

Macron and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Arnachan, attended the signing of the Rafale contract.
French defense officials were delighted. Defense Minister Florence Parli said the Rafale agreement “contributes directly to regional stability.” Additional sales of Caracal helicopters also indicate “the density of our defenses,” she said.

Human rights groups said the weapons UAE provided to the Gulf allies could be used “for illegal attacks and even war crimes” in Yemen and Libya.

“France’s support for the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia is even more opposed, as their leaders have failed to improve their country’s dire human rights records at home, but to show that they are internationally progressive and tolerant. Public relations is in full swing, “Watch said in a statement prior to Macron’s trip to the Gulf.

Macron has become a welcome guest in the region with a keen interest in building a personal relationship between the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and his counterpart in Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al-Saud. Leaders of both Gulf countries raised some pragmaticism in discussing democracy and human rights, a problem that their country has been strongly criticized by rights groups and European legislators, while pursuing business opportunities. I’m evaluating it.

A few months after Macron was elected in 2017, he visited the United Arab Emirates and was built under a $ 1.2 billion agreement to share the name and art of the world-famous museum in Paris. The Louvre Abu Dhabi was launched.

In September, Macron welcomed the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi at the historic Fontainebleau Palace on the outskirts of Paris. The crown prince was restored in 2019 with a donation of € 10 million ($ 11.3 million) from the United Arab Emirates.

The United Arab Emirates and France have also become more and more united over the common distrust of slum-dominated parties throughout the Middle East and have come to support the same side in the civil war in Libya.

A French presidential bureaucrat who spoke to reporters before the trip on anonymous customary terms said Macron “continues to promote and support efforts to contribute to regional stability, from the Mediterranean to the Gulf.”

Officials said talks on a nuclear deal with Iran’s world powers were revived, with plans to discuss tensions in the Gulf countries, especially after then-President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal.

“This is a hot topic,” said a French official, adding that Macron had a telephone discussion with the Iranian president on Monday. He discusses this call and the issue with the leaders of the Gulf countries, who “have a direct interest in this subject, like all of us, and because they are (Iran’s) neighbors.”

According to analysts, France, along with Germany and the United Kingdom, believes the 2015 nuclear deal is a way forward with Iran. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are strongly opposed to the negotiation agreement with Iran in the west.

“The Gulf countries did not like to trade with Iran in the west, but the possibility of it collapsing badly is also bad for them and definitely poses a worse risk,” said a London-based European leadership network think tank. Said Jane Kininmont, a Gulf expert in London. ..

“Their view was that the West should have gotten more from Iran before signing an agreement,” Kininmont said. “But if the West leaves without doing anything, the Gulf countries are beginning to realize that their security will not improve as a result.”