As Macron visits Gulf, can France forge its own energy-for-security future?

President Macron’s Gulf visit aims to address rising energy prices and strengthen ties amid regional security concerns. Save Share President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Bahrain during his tour of the Gulf region, as France continues to reel from a wave ofviolent protests. The French leader is hoping to strengthen defence ties andsecure oil and gas suppliesamid major disruption to global fuel shipments arising from the US-Israel war on Iran. He has already visited Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of his three-day trip. His next stop is Qatar. On the first day of Macron’s trip, France and Kuwait signed eight agreements and cooperation documents covering defence, artificial intelligence, investment and more. Macron then met UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on Monday. The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to advancing cooperation in energy, advanced technology and artificial intelligence (AI). According to the French Foreign Ministry, the UAE is France’s biggest importer in the Gulf, with bilateral trade standing at 10.8 billion euros ($12.1bn) in 2025. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) [PDF], France supplied 18 percent of the UAE’s arms and defence imports in 2025 – the second highest after the United States, at 42 percent. But this isn’t all about simple trade. Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at King’s College London’s School of Security Studies, explained that Macron’s visit to the region is “symptomatic of a much larger geopolitical transformation”. “We are witnessing the gradual emergence of a post-American Middle East in which Washington remains militarily powerful but increasingly struggles to exercise the political leadership it once enjoyed,” Krieg told Al Jazeera. “Europe and the Gulf now face a remarkably similar strategic challenge. Both have become excessively dependent on American security decisions, and both are discovering that this dependence carries substantial economic and political costs.” Most pressing for Macron is finding solutions for strife at home. France has been engulfed inprotestsand violence over a proposed government budget seeking tens of millions of euros in savings to public spending. Protesters angry about the crumbling state of French schools and planned pay freezes for public-sector workers have taken to the streets in increasingly violent protests, and authorities have imposed curfews in some cities....