Macron says Paris, Riyadh have ‘will’ to progress fighter jet sale

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that France and Saudi Arabia have the “will to move forward” on a deal to sell Rafale fighter jets to the oil-rich Gulf monarchy.

“In terms of security and defence, we have very clearly improved things... with the will to move forward on the Rafale, which is a major change in the bilateral relationship,” he told reporters on the second day of a state visit to Saudi Arabia.

Discussions had already been underway for Riyadh to acquire the French-made jets and, though no definitive announcement was expected during the state visit, a source close to the matter indicated a willingness to “take a decision” in that direction.

Nearly 10 countries already have Rafales or have signed commercial agreements to acquire them including Egypt, Qatar, India, Greece, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Croatia and Serbia.

Macron also said that the two countries had “made progress on everything from naval defence to air defence and satellites”, adding that Saudi Arabia and France “have signed some long-awaited contracts”, without giving any further details.

Riyadh buys military equipment from multiple Western nations, where it has faced criticism for its human rights record and military intervention in Yemen.

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened to prop up the Yemen´s internationally recognised government in 2015 after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels overran the capital Sanaa a year earlier and seized most of the country´s main population centres.

The war in Yemen has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and triggered one of the world´s worst humanitarian crises.

Fighting has significantly decreased since the negotiation of a six-month truce by the UN in April 2022.Macron´s state visit is the first by a French president to Saudi Arabia since Jacques Chirac in 2006, cementing what the presidency calls a “very close relationship”.