Macron kicks off three-day Gulf tour, seeks securing fuel supplies amid crisis

Well, despite the protests and violence over the weekend, Emmanuel Macron maintained his trip to four Gulf nations over three days. He's currently in Kuwait, where he's looking to secure petrol and diesel supplies and potentially decrease the price of the gas pump in France. That trip comes as the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz continues, linked to the ongoing U.S. war with Iran. Ketevan Gogsadze has been taking a closer look at that for us here on France 24. She joins me on the set. Ketevan, energy security is really at the heart of Macron's Yes, and that's how he framed it actually during his address to the nation last night, focusing on energy security, talking about how it's going to help one of the concerns of the protesters, which is the prices at the pump. He says, I've taken a number of steps on the international level in order to ensure that we have fuel and gas and will continue to do so by visiting the Gulf countries in order to secure our supply. So as you said, he's in Kuwait right now. He's wrapping up that stop and then heading a little bit later on this afternoon to the UAE, followed by Bahrain and Qatar. The goal is to limit really the economic fallout of the months of war and instability in the Middle East that have sent those fuel prices skyrocketing everywhere, including here in France. And concretely, what the Elysee and the French president are trying to do is sort of get more supplies of these energy products to make them available in France. And they say by having more supplies, by definition, that will lead to lower prices down the road. And they're seeing how they're going to achieve this with sort of three options and three ideas that they want to put in place together. One is securing the current maritime routes that have been disrupted in the past few months. The second one is to find alternative routes to some of these complicated current maritime routes because of the instability that's in the region. And finally, increasing the volume of those energy supplies. Now, that later latter one is the easiest one, because obviously the Gulf nations, they can produce, they can still produce and they want to sell it to the rest of the world. The problem is how do you get it from the Middle East to all the places, including France, that need it? That's a little bit more complicated because, yes, the French are saying we want to secure those routes to find alternative routes. But that's easier said than done, especially since neither the Gulf countries nor France are really in charge of what is happening in the Strait of Hormuz or in Bab-el-Mandeb. But they're sort of dependent on whether or not these areas are going to become more or less stable. So that's for energy. What else is the French president hoping to get out of this Gulf trip? Look, as in all foreign trips, there's always a bit of a business aspect to the trip, looking for more investments, looking for more partnership and cooperation when it comes to technology. But one of the other big focuses besides energy security is going to be defense and security, strategic security, especially with a country like the UAE, for example, that is already France's closest strategic partner in the region. France, over the past few months, given the instability there, has increased its military presence in the region. Remember, they deployed the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, the Rafale fighter jets coming to help air defense systems in the region. All of this, of course, to protect French interests in the region, but also to help defend some of the countries that are allied with France in the region. The Élysées insist that the idea for them is to show, and this is a subtle hint maybe and jab at other countries that are usually involved in the region, to say, we, France, are a, quote, loyal, reliable, and dependable ally, and we are going to build on that. We've been that, and we want to continue being that loyal ally. The problem is that right now, we don't have any concrete elements as to what exactly those partnerships, that cooperation, those deals are going to look like. There are representatives of France's defense industry that are going to be present. But for now, as Emmanuel Macron wraps up his first stop, we don't have any elements on what that will look like. All right. Thanks so much for that, Ketevan. Ketevan Gogsadze.