In a global context of soaring energy prices, thehe crown prince of the Saudi kingdom, the leading exporter of crude, was received on Thursday July 28 evening for a “working dinner” at the Elysée, in Paris.
Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and French President Emmanuel Macron want “intensify cooperation” for “mitigating the effects in Europe, the Middle East and the world” of the war in Ukraine, announced the French presidency on Friday July 29 in a press release.
Emmanuel Macron underlined “the importance of continuing the coordination initiated with Saudi Arabia with a view to diversifying the energy supplies of European states”.
Human rights, a subject “addressed”
It was MBS’s first visit to France, since Saudi agents killed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The meeting of the two leaders provoked the ire of human rights defenders, as well as the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi. Two NGOs also filed a complaint against the crown prince on Thursday for complicity in torture and enforced disappearance.
In the two-page press release from the Elysée at the end of the meeting, the last paragraph mentions this question, in a pithy way: “as part of the dialogue of trust between France and Saudi Arabia, the President of the Republic addressed the issue of human rights in Saudi Arabia”.
