PRESIDENT MACRON WELCOMES THE SAUDI RULER HH PRINCE MOHAMED BIN SALMAN

USPA NEWS - JOINT STATEMEENT OF THE PRESIDENT OF FRENCH REPUBLIC MACRON AND HH PRINCE MOHAMED BIN SALMANE OF SAUDI ARABIA--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We publish the integrity of the Joint Statement of the French President Emmanuel Macron, and his guest, the Saudi Crown HH Mohamed Bin Salmane. “I am happy to have been able to welcome His Royal Highness, Prince Mohammed Bin Salmane, during these three days spent in Paris on an extremely important official visit to France. We had the opportunity to have a long exchange Sunday at the end of the day. You have been able to discover the various economic and strategic aspects of our country during several contacts, with the Prime Minister, several ministers and the business communities. We have just signed two important master agreements and the Prince has sent me a message and an invitation from His Majesty King Salmane for a return trip by the end of the year, which I have accepted with pleasure.“ President Macron said, as a preamble of his statement alongside his Royal guest His Highness, Prince Mohammed Bin Salmane.

JOINT STATEMEENT OF THE PRESIDENT OF FRENCH REPUBLIC MACRON AND HH PRINCE MOHAMED BIN SALMANE OF SAUDI ARABIA-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Your Royal Highness, Ladies and gentlemen, Ladies and gentlemen, “I am happy to have been able to welcome His Royal Highness, Prince Mohammed Bin Salmane, during these three days spent in Paris on an extremely important official visit to France. We had the opportunity to have a long exchange Sunday at the end of the day. You have been able to discover the various economic and strategic aspects of our country during several contacts, with the Prime Minister, several ministers and the business communities. We have just signed two important master agreements and the Prince has sent me a message and an invitation from His Majesty King Salmane for a return trip by the end of the year, which I have accepted with pleasure.“ President Macron said, as a preamble of his statement alongside his Royal guest His Highness, Prince Mohammed Bin Salmane, who came accompanied by a strong ministerial delegation, highly representing Saudi Arabia and before a few international journalists-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The French President Macron continued, “During these three days, we had the opportunity to discuss all the topics that make up our bilateral relationship and that follow the exchange we had at the end of last year when I had spent a few hours in Riyadh returning from the United Arab Emirates. Our will is clear: it is today to found a partnership in the long term between our two countries, to do it around a strategic work which was deepened by our ministers during these three days and to think it both in fidelity to our past because France has a historical relationship with Saudi Arabia, strategically from the very beginnings of your country, your state and reinventing it also in the light of challenges that are ours.“ President Macron said. “The last decade, it must be said, has put a little bit in the middle of this bilateral relationship, either to privilege other partners in the region, or to try to reinvent it by making Saudi Arabia exclusively a customer with large contracts. It's unique to France and so, in France, there are two ways of doing business with a country: either you sign big contracts and say to the President of the Republic: "You have forgotten your principles to sign big contracts "Or we do not sign big contracts and we say to the President of the Republic:" You do not exist vis-à-vis this country because you have not signed large contracts. " Acknowledged President Emmanuel Macron said, while smiling to his Royal guest HH Prince Mohamed Bin Salmane. “There is a third way too, which is first of all to have a common strategy, to share it, to share agreements and disagreements in this strategy and to make sure that the relationship we build is consistent over time with it. This is the method we decided to adopt. It is based on the four pillars I want to come back to. First, of all there is a political pillar. We have, I believe I can say, a common will to actively fight against all forms of terrorism. This is why Saudi Arabia played an extremely important role following our exchanges in the framework of the Small Group that we developed and in the construction, with several partners in the region, of an inclusive agreement, for Syria. We will pursue that work, together in the coming weeks.“ President Emmanuel Macron, recalling the recent events in the news and introducing the four essential pillars of the French-Saudi relations.

IRAN REGION SITUATION AND NEXT CONFRENCE TO FIGHT AGAINTS TERRORISM TO BE HEL ON APRIL 25TH- 26TH “It is also for that reason, that I thank you for having sought a representation at the highest level and an active representation at the conference to be held on April 25 and 26 in Paris in the fight against the financing of terrorism, because today we have to build the international levers and it is a subject that is both political but also very technical, which involves mobilizing all our services in this area and all of our skills to cut off the various types of financing Today, terrorist groups can still benefit or benefit from their reorganization in the future.“ The French President Macron, explained. The French Head of State President Macron, recalled the situation in the Iranian region, and the recent financial commitements aanounced at the CEDRE conference, for Lebanon : “It is this same vision that has led us to also want to take note of a common desire to stabilize the region, and the stability of the region requires the stabilization of several key states. And I want to thank you for the very clear and strong commitment that you made at the end of last week at the CEDRE conference by committing yourself to pay $ 1 billion as part of this conference to Lebanon and to accompany these economic reforms. And at your request, we will have a moment later, for the dinner that is offered in your honour, the presence of the Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, marking our joint desire to continue to accompany Lebanon on this path, have been promoting. We will also need in the coming months, to pursue this objective of stability, to work together on the subject of Iran. On this subject, we have a different tactical view of the JCPOA nuclear agreement, but we have, I think I can say, a coherent strategic vision. This strategic vision is to reduce all expansionist political Islam projects that can feed other forms of terrorism and destabilize the region. And so, as such, France continues to believe that it is important to preserve the framework of JCPOA because it is the only one that allows us to have some form of control and visibility on the Iranian nuclear activity, but as I since last September, it must be complemented by increased work on the limitation of Iran's ballistic activity and Iran's regional expansionism.“ President Macron said.

JCPOA AND THE RECENT FRENCH STRIKE IN SYRIAN FOLLOWED THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS USE------------- The French President Macron, recalled the situation in the Iranian region, and the recent financial commitments announced at the CEDRE conference, for Lebanon I remain convinced that these two complementary paths are needed and, even if on the subject of the JCPOA, we do not share the same view, we have the same purpose and we will therefore work together in the coming months, with many of our partners, so that on the ballistics and the supervision of the activity precisely, the Iranian expansionism in the region, we have common actions. These actions are beginning in Syria as well as in Iraq to do everything to ensure that the Iraqi electoral process is going well and without the influence of foreign powers, especially Iran, and that in Syria, we have a solution, inclusive that does not pass by the partition of Syria nor by the exclusion, the domination of a part of the Syrian people.“ Added President Macron-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “In the field of defense, we have also noted several convergences and several topics that sometimes elicit comments or a lot of sensitivity. In defense matters, we want to continue, as we have done since the beginning, to ensure our mutual security and the elements of stability between two partners.cOn the Yemen, since the beginning of the conflict, France has a clear position, which also led from the beginning of the conflict to exchange information and to stand with Saudi Arabia to ensure its security against the shooting ballistics of which it was the object. And I will be very clear on this subject, in this war, it is obvious that we will not tolerate any ballistic activity that threatens Saudi Arabia and the integrity of its fellow citizens. So we will continue to be very clear on this. Nevertheless, we are committed to respecting international law and in particular international humanitarian law with regard to the situation in Yemen. We had already talked about it at the end of last year. France has also supported the UN Security Council resolutions in this area and therefore we continue to be extremely vigilant on this point and to hope that there can be more work done in humanitarian matters with regard to civilians in Yemen, and that full clarity be given to the concerns that come especially from non-governmental organizations.“ Explained President Emmanuel Macron, as a chief of the Army.

PRESIDENT MACRON STRESSED THE COMPLEX SITUATION IN YEMEN AND THE COMMITEMENTS FOR FIGHTING AGAINST TERRORISM WITH SAUDI ARABIA IN SAHEL----------------------------------------------------------- “On this subject, Prince Mohammed has reminded me of all that has already been done by Saudi Arabia and we have agreed to organize by the summer a humanitarian conference on Yemen common to be held in Paris, which will make it possible, on the one hand, to clarify everything that is done, on all that needs to be done and will make it possible to take new humanitarian initiatives for the civilian population. And so, on Yemen, France's position is clear: full support for the security of Saudi Arabia, condemnation of the ballistic activity coming from the Houthis, willingness to find a political solution to the conflict and high humanitarian demand for respect of civilian populations. We have also noted a common will to build a partnership framework on safety on the Red Sea and here too, to help throughout the region, alongside our allies, to have a sustained activity, a strategic partnership on which we will continue to work together but which for me is one of the strong points of the bilateral relationship.“ Explained President Macron “Thirdly, I wish to underline in this respect, it is also the partnership that we have built in recent months following my visit to Prince Mohammed in Riyadh in the Sahel since Saudi Arabia has not only committed to sides of France to support the G5 Sahel member countries and the financing of their joint armed forces, but also announced to double this effort to support development initiatives under the Sahel Alliance, sharing in this Our strategic vision is that we need a military pillar and a development pillar to help our partners in the Sahel, and I want to thank you very much. It shows the coherence of the political vision that I mentioned at the moment.“ French President Macron underlined

PRESIDENT MACRON RECALLS THE STRONG ECONOMIC BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SAUDI ARABIA AND FRANCE------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “The third axis of the relationship is economic. It has led to several signatures, framework discussions, but it will continue to decline in the coming months until the visit that I will return. This economic relationship, it passes, on the one hand, by the development of French companies that can accompany the projects and Vision 2030 of Prince Mohammed in terms of energy diversification, in terms of sustainable city, in terms of innovation artificial intelligence, large networks, we have skills, know-how that fully justify the share of our companies. And this economic partnership, I hope, will intensify our relationship, development, job creation and, indeed, joint contracts.There is also the will to make investments in France and joint strategic investments and, in this respect, the sectors of media, telecommunications, innovation, leisure and luxury are identified as strategic and are consistent with the will of ours to bring precisely a project for French intelligence and French know-how. And we also have agri-food projects that we really care about. So we talked about several strategic topics, such as the DOUX company where a Saudi investor is already present. And I hope that we can continue these exchanges. Our desire is that the economic strategies that we carry on both sides can find the ability to jointly plan cross-investments and complementary strategies.“ President Macron explained------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, in terms of culture, education and research, a framework agreement has been signed to develop joint programs, to develop in the field of higher education and the promotion of the French language new initiatives on which we will continue to work. by the end of the year. And I think that what we have just signed is a very strong example of this fourth pillar. By launching a Franco-Saudi partnership to highlight the exceptional site of Mada'in Saleh, in the governorate of Al-Ula, which is a Mecca of Nabatean civilization, we mark a desire to have a partnership that is an archaeological, heritage, cultural, but also tourism, economic partnership, which also participates in a project which is yours, which is to show the depth of your culture and its roots in the most ancient civilizations and the will which is the ours to participate in this business. An agency is created today, partner of the Royal Saudi Commission devoted to this project. It will be led by Mr Gérard Mestrallet and will take action without delay.“ Acknowledged the head of state Emmanuel Macron* Gerard Mestrallet, former CEO of Engie was appointed by President Macron as Special Envoy as part of an official mission as part of the project to build a future city in Saudi Arabia.

PRESIDNT MACRON HHIGHLIGHTS THE FOUR PILLARS OF THE FRENCH-SAUDI BILATERAL RELATION ------ "On all of these topics - I am not exhaustive but I will complete depending on what you want on different points -, we therefore wished to recast on these four pillars the bilateral relationship because I believe very deeply that we are at a moment of our stories and the region that is yours that justifies it. So, I hear all the comments that are there, and we may come back to that in the legitimate questions and questions that come from civil society, human rights journalists, and the various sensitive issues around your issue. country. At the same time, I am also looking at what is going on in the region and other projects. We have a young leader who has eminent responsibilities and is moving to the highest positions in a country where 70% of the population is under 30 years of age. We can have the choice of staying on our classic positions. It may be decided that the first steps of modernizing his society are cosmetic. If we do that, then we let Prince Mohammed face those who, in his region, think the opposite and decide to go back, to stay to a political Islam or to terrorist choices. I do not know everything, I am not a leader of Saudi Arabia and I do not know his society intimately enough. I know one thing is that if there is a chance that his project will succeed, it is France's responsibility to accompany him and therefore tell him: "You have already done a lot for women in your country. country. There is still a lot to do. There are sensitivities because our countries are not at the same level but we have a leader who spent more than 5% of his life time in France, whose population largely today studied in France, in Great Britain, in the United States, in Asia so who has seen other things. And so the seeds of change are there.------ And so, I will answer all the questions that arise. I know all the imperfections, I know the disagreements that we can have on certain subjects and we have mentioned them with a lot of frankness. France will continue to speak with many partners in the region who are not necessarily partners with Saudi Arabia because our relationship is not exclusive and because it is the strength of French diplomacy. But I know one thing: our determination to fight against terrorism, our desire for stability in the region and our ambition to modernize our societies, our desire to accompany a secular vision of our societies and to have a political project that allows the emancipation of people, has an additional chance of success if we work together. And for all these reasons, I have a lot of hope for the project that is ours and for all that we will do in the coming months until the visit, Your Royal Highness, that I will give you at the end of the year in your country, thanking you for bringing this invitation to your father's title and thanking you for these three days spent in France." President Macron Concluded

STATEMENT OF THE SAUDI CROWN HH PRINCE BIN SALMANE EXPLAINING HIS VISION 2030 AND REFORMS UNDER HIS REIGN FOR SAUDI ARABIA--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Saudi Crown Prince HH Mohamed Bin Salmane introduced by vision of the French- Saudi Partnership: “Our partnerships are very important especially at this time with changes in Europe and the Middle East as well as the rest of the world and our joint efforts in economy, culture and there are destructive potentials and alas those are in the Middle East, as well as the Iranian regime which is not intended to serve the ideology of the old regimes. With the $ 150 MDS that was released they did not build anything or any school but only added missiles. They serve the terrorists, not just the tools, including bin Laden's son from Al Qaeda.“ The Saudi Crown Prince HH Mohamed Bin Salmane, explained. The Saudi Crown Prince HH Mohamed Bin Salmane reminded the "youth" of his country Saudi Arabia, having explored until today only very few of their resources and assumes the recent reforms initiated under his reign " “And we are in contact with our interlocutors to oppose terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world to combat this instability. From our position in the Middle East and Arab world and in Europe, Saudi Arabia is a power and thanks to a great economy but also because my country is not alone, because its greatness also resides in all its alliances, at the same time Arab, in the Gulf and the Moslem world as well as our strength of allies with Europe and in particular France to take up challenges. Regarding France, we have warned about security and terrorism in the Sahel for years before it developed so badly for Europe and the rest of the world and President Macron is aware of this. From an economic point of view, France is making reforms. In Saudi Arabia, we only use 10% of our resources and opportunities for trade, privatization. And the power of Saudi Arabia cannot copy, a model that exists elsewhere, in Europe or Africa.---------------------------------------------------------- The French companies that work for us in Saudi Arabia, and with us, have many common potentials and we are already creating jobs together. By virtue of the 2030 vision, we´d like to be a land of culture, recreation and hospitality. We want France to be our privileged partner. And our role as leaders is to take advantage of these potentialities.“ The Saudi Crown Prince HH Mohamed Bin Salmane concluded.