ABU DHABI, 16 January 2008 — France and the United Arab Emirates signed deals during a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday for Paris to help it develop civilian nuclear energy. The deal was signed in the presence of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Sarkozy.
Yesterday’s agreement makes the UAE the third Arab country to ink a nuclear cooperation deal with France, after Algeria and Libya. Sarkozy on Monday reiterated an offer to share civilian nuclear technology with the Muslim world.
Both the country also signed a military cooperation agreement for boosting cooperation between them and to set up a military base in the UAE. French president who arrived in Abu Dhabi from Saudi Arabia was received by Al-Nahyan and other top UAE officials at the airport.
The agreement, according to the state news agency WAM, was signed by UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and French Foreign and European Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner, provides a framework for cooperation between the two countries in the evaluation and potential use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Under the agreement, the UAE and France will form a high-level joint committee to oversee cooperation in the areas of nuclear power generation, water desalination, basic and applied research, as well as, in the fields of agronomy, earth sciences, medicine and industry. Commenting after signing the agreement, the UAE foreign minister said: “The UAE is conducting wide consultations to create a responsible framework for the evaluation and possible implementation of a peaceful nuclear program, ensuring compliance with the highest standards of non-proliferation, safety and security.”
He added the UAE is undertaking high-level consultations with different governments, specifically with regard to draft UAE policy document on the evaluation and possible implementation of a peaceful nuclear program.
The minister said that similar direct consultations are also being sought with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), indicating that, “It is the UAE government’s hope that the final policy may also serve as a replicable model for non-nuclear countries to evaluate and potentially implement a peaceful domestic nuclear program with full support and backing of the international community.”
He confirmed in a statement that the announced initiatives are in addition and complimentary to the UAE’s commitment to be part of the GCC-wide initiative to explore the potential for peaceful nuclear power generation in the GCC.
The defense agreement inked yesterday calls for 400 to 500 French Army, navy and air force personnel to be stationed at the base, said Vice Adm. Jacques Mazars, who negotiated the deal for France.
“The base will be permanent. It will be the first such French base in the Gulf and it will face the Strait of Hormuz,” the strategic waterway through which much of the world’s oil supplies pass, a French presidential source said. Edouard Guillaud, a military aide of Sarkozy, said the military facility will be established in Abu Dhabi, and will become operational in 2009. Mazars said that as part of the plan, around 150 navy personnel will be stationed at a naval site at Abu Dhabi port.
The UAE’s WAM news agency said that an agreement was inked between the UAE and France to boost military relations, but it did not provide details. The two countries are already linked by a 1995 defense pact under which the two countries’ armed forces conduct regular joint maneuvers in the UAE, to which France is a leading military supplier.
