Macron warmly greeted the Saudi prince universally known as MBS to the Elysee Palace in Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron was hosting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a working dinner in Paris on Thursday.
The prince has been in Europe since Tuesday, visiting Greece and now France in his first official trip to the continent.
It comes as the West is courting the major oil-producing state amid the war in Ukraine and faltering nuclear talks with Iran.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Macron would seek to secure supplies of energy from elsewhere than Russia.
“Obviously, this isn’t about casting aside our principles. It’s not about calling into question our commitment in favor of human rights. The president will surely have an opportunity to talk about this with Mr. Mohammed bin Salman,” Borne said.
“In a context where we know that Russia is cutting, is threatening to cut, and is again cutting gas supplies, and where we have tensions over energy prices, I think the French would not understand if we didn’t talk to the countries that are precisely producers of energy,” she said.
