This privileged relationship, established when King Faisal met with Gen. de Gaulle in 1967, has been confidently active in various cooperation fields — political, military, security, economic and cultural.

Further to the visit of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to Paris in June 2007 and followed by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to Riyadh in January 2008, November 2008 and in October 2009, it has been decided, at the highest levels, to give a new impetus to our strategic partnership — aimed at being global and focused on transfer of competence.

Major cooperation agreements were signed in 2008, which are now implemented in the sectors of education (university and technical), security, political counseling and energy.

Close cooperation is maintained on major political matters of the region where our positions widely converge. We particularly value Saudi efforts and contributions to the Middle East stability and its mediation in Yemen — with the GCC help — for a peaceful transition. Saudi Arabia is a major ally in our common fight against international terrorism and we also share in this regard the promotion of dialogue between religions and civilizations, launched by King Abdullah.

As far as the economy is concerned, we also praise the Kingdom’s wise policy in the petroleum sector, particularly in the context of the rising prices of energy in 2011. Many of our firms actively participate in major development projects. In the last three years, our exports to the Kingdom have doubled.

Furthermore, we are proud of the sizable contracts signed by French companies in water treatment, electricity and transport sectors. Our firms are also active in the distribution, hotel, food and luxury industries. We welcome the strengthening, this year, of the cooperation between Saudia and Airbus and also with Air France. Saudi Arabia’s potential, its massive development program and its partnerships’ diversification strategy offer a promising outlook for France in the coming years. We have signed this year a cooperation agreement in the civil nuclear sector, which will open a new avenue to our strategic partnership.

Saudi Arabia is our second commercial partner in the Middle East. Sixty French companies are established in the Kingdom giving jobs to 20,000 employees. France is the fifth largest foreign investor in Saudi Arabia with $10.5 billon invested in the Saudi economy.

France and Saudi Arabia have also strengthened their military and security cooperation with the doubling of our conjoint military exercises in 2011 and with the continual growth of our trainee program for Saudi security officers in the field of counterterrorism, alongside our constant cooperation with the Prince Naif Arab University for Security Sciences.

In the field of cultural cooperation, the number of Saudi students studying in France went from less than 100 in 2007 to more than 1,000 this year. The French Accor group is setting up in Saudi Arabia four trainee centers, aiming to train 12,000 young Saudis in the field of tourism and hostelry. France has strengthened its cooperation in archeology and museum with the Kingdom, alongside the major event of last year “le Louvre” exposition on the Kingdom archeological treasures.

The French Embassy in Riyadh offers monthly cultural events that allow Saudi and French public to share different cultures of the world. We are determined to strengthen even more this strategic partnership in all areas for the mutual benefit of our friendly nations.