France signs $10 bn deal with S Arabia

French P.M. Manuel Valls announced that 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion) in contracts had been signed – an amount roughly equal the two countries’ bilateral trade volume this year. Saudi Arabia is the largest oil supplier to France, while a few 4,000 French firms export to the kingdom; now about 80 French companies are operating there.

France has boosted ties with the conservative Islamic kingdom – the Arab world’s largest economy – despite persistent criticism from rights activists of its record on civil liberties.

For Saudi Arabia, scaling up ties with France are part of an effort to build alliances beyond its traditional defense partner the United States, as ties between Washington and Riyadh cooled under US President Barack Obama.

Valls, accompanied by Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, was on a regional tour which included Jordan and Egypt.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was also in Riyadh. The French leader again returned in May to become the first Western leader to attend a Gulf Cooperation Council summit.

The statement says both sides will conclude negotiations – with an end-of-year target date – to provide fast patrol boats for the Saudi navy.

He was in Egypt prior to visiting Saudi Arabia, where Cairo’s government signed a deal to buy two French-made Mistral warships.

Saudi beef imports are worth about $500 million a year, according to French farm ministry. Within the a year ago, multi-billion dollar sales to Egypt, Qatar, and India have been clinched.

On its second round, the forum also convenes in the new reign of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, during which the Kingdom leads a new economic approach.

Valls’s office said the prime minister would request “a gesture of pardon, humanity and clemency” for a member of the minority Shiite community, Ali al-Nimr, who is facing the death penalty.