Preparations underway in Paris to receive Bin Zayed

UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will visit France beginning July 18, marking his first official state visit outside the region after assuming office in May.

Analysts believe the decades-old relationship between UAE and France is set to receive a big boost with this visit.

The last time Sheikh Mohamed met French President Emmanuel Macron was on May 15 when Macron flew down to Abu Dhabi to congratulate him, and also to condole the death of the late Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

They also met last year – on December 3, when His Highness received Macron at Expo 2020 Dubai where France announced multibillion-Euro deals and on September 15, when they discussed in Paris economic and cultural cooperation, besides the humanitarian fallout of the pandemic.

On June 2, the 14th session of the UAE-France Strategic Dialogue held in Abu Dhabi reflected on the “exceptional partnership” between the two countries and followed the directives set out by the UAE and French Presidents in recent engagements.

As part of the ambitious 10-year bilateral roadmap of the UAE-France strategic partnership (2020-2030) adopted in June 2020, the meeting involved discussions on strengthening key sectors of bilateral cooperation, such as economy, trade and investment, oil and gas, decarbonised hydrogen, nuclear and renewable energy, climate change, education, culture, health, artificial intelligence, food security, fintech, intellectual property rights, anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, space and cybersecurity.

As of 2020, UAE’s exports to France totaled $984 million, OEC data shows. The main exports were petroleum oils, aluminium, turbo jets, turbo propellors and gas turbines. During the last 25 years, the exports of UAE to France have increased at an annualised rate of 10.5 per cent, from $81.8 million in 1995 to $984 million in 2020.

As of 2020, French exports to the UAE stood at $3.67 billion, and its main exports to the UAE were aircraft. In the last 25 years, France’s exports to the UAE have grown 4.51 per cent per annum from $1.22 billion in 1995 to $3.67 billion in 2020.

In France, the UAE is the second largest investor among the Gulf countries with an FDI stock of 1.46 billion euros in 2018 (or 25 per cent of the region’s investments). About 50 companies are partially or wholly owned by UAE capital in France.