ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, June 15 (UPI) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy, accompanied by an Airbus full of Cabinet ministers and business tycoons, recently flew to Abu Dhabi to inaugurate France's first permanent military base in the Persian Gulf -- and to hustle some of the big defense contracts coming up in the region.
Abu Dhabi is the richest of the seven sheikdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates, and France is a leading arms supplier. But the establishment of a trio of facilities for France's army, navy and air force, just across the gulf from Iran, reflects the new focus of Sarkozy's security policy as U.S. influence in the Middle East erodes.
Sarkozy has also made high-profile visits to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain to showcase military hardware, the Rafale multi-role combat jet in particular. Dassault Aviation has yet to find an overseas buyer for the aircraft, essential to keep the production line going so the plane maker can supply the French air force, the jet's only customer.
Like the United States, France has found that as post-Cold War Western forces are reshaped and downsized, foreign buyers have become essential for defense contractors to keep production lines going.
Given Arab fears of Iran's expansionist aims, its alleged nuclear arms program and the accelerating pace of its missile technology, the gulf monarchies are spending vast amounts of their petrodollars on an armaments drive. That was accelerated by the 2005-08 surge in oil prices.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a top Swedish think tank, said in April that the volume of arms sold to the Middle East rose 38 percent in 2004-08 compared with the preceding four years. Arab League statistics show that the Gulf Arab states forked out $162 billion on defense and security in 2004-07.
The United States was the leading supplier, but France was also a major provider. The United Arab Emirates accounted for 34 percent of the arms imports in the Middle East and was the third-largest importer in the world after China and India.
In Kuwait, Sarkozy declared the emirate was negotiating to buy 14-28 fourth-generation Rafales and that the deal could be wrapped up by the end of the year.
France has also proposed selling Rafales to Oman to replace the 20 Anglo-French Jaguar strike aircraft the sultanate acquired 30 years ago and to the United Arab Emirates to replace the 63 Mirage 2000s it bought from France over the last 20 years.
Sarkozy made a big push for the Rafales even though the gulf states traditionally buy U.S. and British arms. "France has its own cards to play," he declared in Muscat, the Omani capital. "I'm not going to leave here empty-handed. We're sowing seeds and then we'll fight to defend our companies and bring back contracts."
The Saudi navy operates four French-built F-2000 frigates, and French Defense Minister Herve Morin visited Riyadh in 2008 to discuss an arms package that included four FREMM multi-mission frigates and three Marlin-class submarines.
Another key Sarkozy target is Iraq. In Saddam Hussein's day, France was Baghdad's second-ranking arms supplier after Russia.
On March 25 France sealed a deal with Iraq for the purchase of 24 EC635 military helicopters built by Eurocopter and worth $488 million. It was the first defense contract between the two for 25 years and was signed barely a month after Sarkozy made an unannounced visit Baghdad, the first French head of state to do so.
"France wants to be the first in the line of friends in the new Iraq," he said. "I want to underscore France's desire to participate in the economic development of Iraq, the rehabilitation of its infrastructures. Our collaboration has no limits."
Libya is another important target. Tripoli renewed a military cooperation agreement with France in 2005 and has been negotiating with Paris on modernizing its arsenal, including retrofitting 38 Mirage jets acquired 25 years ago and installing Ottomat anti-ship missile systems aboard Libyan patrol boats.
In August 2008 it was announced that France's MBDA Missile Systems, partly owned by the Netherlands-based EADS defense and aerospace consortium in which the French government has a significant stake, would supply Libya with Milan anti-tank missiles under a contract reportedly worth $228 million.
