France will build a new aircraft carrier to boost its capacities as a maritime power, President Emmanuel Macron has told French troops gathered at a military base in Abu Dhabi, where he will also discuss bilateral ties with the Gulf state, notably co-operation on combatting drug trafficking. The UAE is the world's biggest buyer of French weapons but faces allegations they're being used to supply Sudanese paramilitary forces.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday he had given the official go-ahead to replace his country's flagship – the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.
"In line with the last two military programming laws, and after a thorough and comprehensive review, I have decided to equip France with a new aircraft carrier," Macron said during a visit to French troops in the United Arab Emirates.
The decision to move ahead with the project was made this week, he said.
Macron arrived in the United Arab Emirates earlier Sunday to celebrate Christmas with French troops, more than 900 of whom are deployed in the UAE.
The French president met with his UAE counterpart Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss "strengthening the strategic partnership" between the two countries, according to the French presidency.
France’s Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier to deploy under NATO command for first time
Cooperation on fighting drug trafficking
France cooperates with the UAE on areas including artificial intelligence and trade, and now wants to secure the Gulf state's support in its war on drug trafficking.
Major traffickers are believed to have found refuge in the UAE, Dubai in particular, and some of them are thought to have built up substantial real estate portfolios there.
The French delegation includes Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, who last month called on the UAE to extradite some 15 suspected drug traffickers wanted by France.
Macron said on Tuesday that he wanted to seek cooperation from countries where certain ringleaders are located to seize their assets and have them arrested.
Darmanin says France has secured the seizure of about 40 apartments and luxury villas in Dubai that were suspected of being linked to drug trafficking networks in France.
French troops deployed in the UAE take part in anti-drug trafficking patrols at sea.
Fight against drug crime top of the agenda as Macron visits Marseille
Important, but controversial, ally
Troops also participate in Operation Aspides – the EU naval task force deployed to the Red Sea in response to attacks on ships by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels – and in Operation Chammal, which seeks to contain the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
The Emirates are an essential economic partner for France and the world’s largest buyers of French weapons, purchasing 80 Rafale fighter jets in 2021.
But the UAE are under scrutiny for their involvement in the conflict in Yemen and, above all, in allegedly providing weapons to RSF paramilitaries in Sudan – accusations the Emirates roundly refute.
In May this year, the top United Nations court threw out Sudan's case against the UAE over alleged complicity in genocide.
However, human rights group Amnesty International claims the Emirates are supplying weapons to the RSF, which recently took over the city of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We estimate that the United Arab Emirates are currently the main supplier of arms and ammunition to the RSF,” said Abdullahi Hassan, Amnesty International’s researcher on Sudan and Somalia.
While some of the weapons were made in China, Amnesty showed last year that French-produced military equipment was in the hands of the RSF.
French weapons found in Sudan war zone despite arms embargo, says Amnesty
“Among this equipment is the Galix system – a technology used on armoured vehicles, on the battlefield,” Hassan told RFI.
Amnesty considers this a violation of the UN embargo that bans the delivery of weapons to Darfur.
“We are calling on the states concerned [France, the United States, China and Russia] to stop supplying military equipment to the United Arab Emirates as long as they do not stop delivering arms to the RSF."
(with AFP)
