France to station forces in Gulf

France to station forces in Gulf

news.bbc.co.uk

France and the UAE have signed a deal allowing France to set up a permanent military base, the first in the Gulf for a Western power other than the US.
The deal allows for the stationing of up to 500 permanent military personnel in the UAE's largest emirate Abu Dhabi.

The two countries also signed a deal to develop peaceful nuclear energy during a visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

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Supprising , France has just reached an agreement to place 500 of its military personnel the UAE.

now why on earth would france want a military base a couple hundred kilomitors away from Iran,

really gets one thinking.

so thats US bases in the middle east with the new side kicks the french setting up base.

havent said british as i havent heard of perm britsih bases in the middle east (might be wrong)

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

France sees how valuable oil is to them and their society. Hence why they want military forces to establish a base there to protect their interests in maintaining a continuous flow of oil. They knew it all along. France don't want to be left out. Its just like the discovery of the New World and countries competing one another. England versus France for dominance of North America.



Russia and China also have interests in the Gulf of course, no doubt about it.

Everybody is looking for a possible long term solution. Alternative sources has so far not be promising.

reply to post by bodrul


I think (but don't quote me on this) the nearest permanent bases the UK has are in Cyprus and on Diego Garcia (which is presently being used by the USAF, but we own it). Neither is in the Gulf itself, however. The UK also retains a small number of military personnel in Oman, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. You can read about total deployments for the UK armed forces in 2006 here. It's broken down into the three branches, listing the number of personnel stationed around the world.

It's certainly a break from Chirac's foreign policy. President Sarkozy seems to be gradually trying to coax the French back out onto the world stage as major players.

I was under the impression that the RAF does a lot of training in Oman, and has a significant permanent presence there.

Deltaboy is right - just about every country in the industrialized world depends on PG oil and the maritime trade that carries it.

This agreement doesn't mean anything more or less than that.

It's not a threat towards Iran - 500 troops are not exactly a major threat to a country the size of Iran

[edit on 1/15/08 by xmotex]

Wouldn't those troops be there just to provide security for the nuclear programme?
And also for the french workers building the facilities?

If it's at the request of the UAE, surely there's no problem.

The French are protecting their nuclear contracts. they're going to build and maintia ntaht nuke plant, so it makes sense for them to protect their meal ticket. It's also a "check" against the U.S. in the region.

reply to post by bodrul



to my eye, France got this hand-of-friendship for two of several reasons,
One is because France is not the USA,
Two is because France has a sizeable demographic of Muslims in the nation.

the small french contingent isn't there to protect or project power...
the french are there because Abu Dhabi invited them as fangless,
lap dogs for show only... just an honor guard class of troops for
propaganda purposes to show that the UAE are civilized and hospitable
even to heretics

Well I have had business relationships with some Emiratis (an airline specifically) and I have to say - IME they are extremely civilized & hospitable, even to infidels

They are also pretty good people to do business with - efficient and kinda demanding on service quality issues (as it should be), but polite and not prone to histrionics. Plus their checks never bounce. I found them much nicer to deal with than American record companies, for example.