Power, regional conflicts, and bilateral cooperation to dominate Emmanuel Macron and Mohammed bin Salman’s discussions.
Printed On 23 Aug 2026
French President Emmanuel Macron is about to welcome Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to Paris for a two-day state go to, opening with the closing ceremony of the Esports World Cup earlier than turning to talks on regional safety and financial ties.
The go to begins Sunday night as Macron hosts the crown prince on the esports event’s last in Paris — the primary time the competitors, spanning video video games to chess, has been held exterior Saudi Arabia.
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Bilateral conferences and a enterprise discussion board will observe on Monday, when Macron’s workplace mentioned the 2 leaders will talk about “the principle matters of regional significance, inside a framework of shut collaboration between France and her companions within the Gulf”.
What’s on the agenda
Officers count on dialogue of vitality routes that might bypass the Strait of Hormuz, together with new pipelines, capability upgrades and different port networks, alongside talks on the Iran battle, Gaza-Israel and the broader state of affairs in Palestine, and developments in Lebanon and Syria.
A number of agreements on well being, transport and vitality are attributable to be signed on Monday. Macron’s adviser mentioned discovering a decision to the US-Israel warfare on Iran, now in its sixth month, stays out of attain, noting “It’s troublesome to see a method out.”
The go to is MBS’s third to Paris, following journeys in 2022 and 2023, and builds on the Saudi-French Strategic Partnership Council launched throughout Macron’s state go to to Riyadh in December 2024.
The Paris journey is Prince Mohammed’s first exterior the dominion since Saudi Arabia signed a trilateral defence pact with Turkiye and Pakistan on August 7 — the Mecca Joint Defence Settlement, referred to as the Mecca pact.
Signed by the prince in addition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the settlement commits all three states to deal with an armed assault on any certainly one of them as an assault on all three.
Analysts say the pact displays Riyadh’s push to diversify its safety partnerships past Washington.
The deal builds on a bilateral Saudi-Pakistan mutual defence settlement signed in 2025, and comes as Gulf states weigh cut back their reliance on US safety ensures amid the extended fallout from the Iran warfare.
France has been a long-standing weapons and defence provider to Gulf states, and Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a rising investor within the French financial system.
The 2 leaders final met in April in Islamabad throughout talks between Tehran and Washington geared toward ending the Iran warfare, agreeing then to remain in “shut contact” on de-escalation efforts.
Saudi Arabia is individually set to host Expo 2030 and the 2034 soccer World Cup, each prone to characteristic in Monday’s discussions.
