Macron courts Gulf allies on energy, AI amid domestic turmoil

Emmanuel Macron landed in Kuwait on Monday carrying a message he had just delivered to the French nation in a solemn televised address: his Gulf tour would help secure energy supplies for a country gripped by a cost-of-living crisis. Within hours, he was sitting across from Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Meshal for ninety minutes of talks. The conversation was closed to reporters, but the purpose was clear. France, like other European nations, was seeking to position itself as an indispensable ally to the Gulf states even as it struggled to influence the very conflict—the war between the US and Iran—that had destabilized the region and sent energy prices climbing.

Macron's three-day journey would take him next to Abu Dhabi, where President Sheikh Mohamed received him with an official ceremony, then to Bahrain, and finally to Qatar by Wednesday. The itinerary was deliberate. Each of these states had suffered direct attacks on energy infrastructure during the Iran conflict. The Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's oil passes, had become a flashpoint. Houthi rebels from Yemen were now threatening a second chokepoint, the Bab Al Mandeb strait. The risk was that the global energy crunch could worsen. France needed to be seen as working to restore stability and keep shipping lanes open.

In Abu Dhabi, the discussions centered on three pillars: energy, artificial intelligence, and the fallout from regional conflict. State media reported that talks addressed "developments in the Middle East and efforts to contain their repercussions on maritime security and global energy supplies." The French delegation was not there to negotiate alone. Benoit de Saint Exupery, Airbus's executive vice-president for sales, and Sheikh Saud Salem Abdulaziz Al Sabah, executive director of the Kuwait Investment Authority, signed a partnership that included renewal of Kuwait Airways' fleet. The chief executives of TotalEnergies and Engie—two of France's largest energy companies—were traveling with the President. So was the head of Campus AI, a major technological complex under construction near Paris that had already attracted billions in funding from the UAE.

The timing of the visit underscored Macron's political constraints. He would be ineligible to run in France's presidential election six months away. This was likely to be one of his last major Gulf tours as sitting president. The stakes of appearing strong abroad were high precisely because the situation at home was deteriorating. Over the previous days, more than two thousand people had been arrested in connection with civil unrest that had seen property torched and ransacked across the country. Macron had issued a statement expressing "anger" and "shame," vowing that those responsible would "have to pay." His government was preparing to announce concrete proposals for young people, but the damage to his authority was already visible.

The diplomatic effort reflected a broader European calculation. France and its allies had proposed, in April, an international maritime coalition with the UK to defend ships in the Strait of Hormuz. That proposal was still waiting for a political agreement between Washington and Tehran—an agreement that seemed no closer. In the meantime, European nations had little direct leverage over the conflict itself, yet they needed to convince Gulf leaders that they remained reliable partners. The French delegation's presence—with defense ministers, foreign ministers, and the heads of major industrial concerns—was meant to signal commitment and capability.

Macron had visited the UAE multiple times as president. He had attended the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in 2023, visited the Louvre Abu Dhabi's opening in 2017, and met Sheikh Mohamed at the Zayed National Museum just ten months earlier. His most recent Middle East trip had been to Damascus in July, making him the first major Western leader to visit post-civil-war Syria. Each journey had allowed him to project French leadership on the international stage. But as unrest escalated at home, maintaining that focus was becoming harder. The question hanging over this Gulf tour was whether diplomatic achievements abroad could cut through the growing anger within France itself.