NICE, France (Dispatches) — France announced the signing Friday of a 16 billion-euro ($18 billion) armaments mega-contract for the sale of 80 of its upgraded Rafale warplanes to the United Arab Emirates.
The French Defense Ministry said the deal was France’s largest-ever weapons contract for export. It came as French President Emmanuel Macron is in the Emirates on the first stop of a two-day visit to the Persian Gulf. There was no immediate confirmation of the signing from Emirati officials.
Manufacturer Dassault Aviation said the UAE is buying the upgraded F4 version of its multi-role combat aircraft. That will make the Emirates Air Force the first Rafale F4 user outside of France, it said.
The deal offers a shot in the arm for France’s defense industry after the collapse of a $66 billion contract for Australia to buy 12 French submarines. France bitterly characterized the alternative deal between the UK, the U.S. and Australia as a “stab in the back”.
Macron and Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, were present at the contract signing, Dassault said.
French defense officials were jubilant. The defense minister, Florence Parly, claimed the deal “directly contributes to regional stability.”
France has deep ties to the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The UAE opened a French naval base in 2009 at Abu Dhabi’s Port Zayed. French warplanes and personnel are also stationed at Al-Dhafra Air Base, a major facility outside the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi that’s also home to several thousand American troops.
The UAE was already the fifth biggest customer for the French defense industry at €4.7 billion from 2011-2020, according to a parliamentary report.
Macron’s keen interest in forging personal relationships with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince and his counterpart in Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman Al Saud, while pursuing business opportunities, has been heavy criticized by rights groups and European lawmakers.
Months after Macron was elected in 2017, he traveled to the UAE to inaugurate Louvre Abu Dhabi, built under a $1.2 billion agreement to share the name and art of the museum in Paris.
In September, Macron hosted Abu Dhabi’s crown prince at the historic Chateau de Fontainebleau outside Paris, which was restored in 2019 with a UAE donation of 10 million euros ($11.3 million).
The UAE and France have also become increasingly aligned over a shared mistrust of Islamic political parties across the Middle East, and backed the same side in Libya’s strife.
Macron’s visit to the UAE is part of a two-day trip to the Persian Gulf that includes stops in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Ahead of the trip, international human rights groups called on France to stop selling munitions to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and to address rights abuses in the region.
They said France is promoting the sale of Rafale fighter jets even though the UAE has played a key role in the Saudi-led military aggression in Yemen. Emirati forces have also been complicit in the killing of civilians through indiscriminate air and drone raids in Libya.