The current visit by Amir to France will further boost the strong relations the two countries has been sharing for over four decades.
The Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who was on a working visit to France and UK before heading for the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, met French President Emmanuel Macron at Elysee Palace yesterday and discussed strategic relations between both countries and ways to boost them in various fields.
In February 2019, Qatar and France had signed an intent agreement for establishing strategic partnership dialogue aimed at enhancing cooperation in different fields between the two countries and address a broad range of regional issues.
Both Doha and Paris share very strong bonds and cooperate closely in many fields like defence, security, health, education, culture, sports, economy, investment and counter-terrorism. One area Qatar cooperates closely with France is defense.
Qatar had signed an agreement with France in 2015 to supply the Amiri Air Force with 24 Rafale aircraft and later activated the deal by increasing the number of aircraft by 12 more.
The Qatari Amiri Air Force received the first French fighter this year in February. Another big development in the bilateral relations was the visit of Prime Minister of the French Republic, Edouard Philippe to Qatar in March this year.
During the visit, Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and Prime Minister of the French Republic held official talkssession and witnessed the signing of a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding between both governments.
The presence of French companies in Qatar offering their expertise and sharing know-how in strategic sectors like oil and gas and construction for decades shows the deep ties and mutual trust shared between the two nations.
The robust business ties are reflected in the strong growth in volume of bilateral trade. The volume of trade between the two friendly countries has grown from around QR9.14bn in 2016 to over QR14bn in 2018. Qatari investments in France include several sectors such as energy, real estate, hotels, financial services, transport, communications and sports.
France also remains one of the leading destinations for Qatari foreign investment, as Qatar’s investments in France were estimated to be around €30bn in 2018 Cultural ties between the two nations will get a major fillip as part of Year of Culture initiative Qatar will mark next year as Qatar-France 2020 Year of Culture
