The France-Saudi Strategic Partnership Council closes the political risk question for 2026.

Insight N°014

12 January 2026

The France-Saudi Strategic Partnership Council was formally established during President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Saudi Arabia on 2 to 4 December 2024 and reaffirmed at the Riyadh follow-up meeting in March 2025. The Council is co-chaired by President Macron and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Council operates across five working tracks: defence, energy transition, culture, mobility, and the wider commercial and economic relationship. Vision Golfe 2026, the 18 to 19 June forum at the French Ministry of the Economy in Bercy, is the public-facing commercial event of the Council’s commercial track.

What the Council changes for international firms

The change is structural, and it closes a specific question that international boards have raised consistently when considering Saudi market entry.

Before December 2024, the political question for a foreign firm entering Saudi Arabia was “is the bilateral relationship sufficiently stable to anchor a multi-year investment.” That question was non-trivial. France-Saudi commercial relations have been warm in periods and cooler in others over the last two decades.

After December 2024, the bilateral relationship operates inside a formal Council mechanism, co-chaired at head-of-state level, with named working tracks and produced outcomes. The political risk question is closed by the structure of the mechanism, not by any single declaration.

The Council’s track record so far

The Council framework has produced visible, signed outcomes within eighteen months of its establishment.

Energy transition: 1.7 gigawatts of solar Power Purchase Agreements awarded to TotalEnergies and EDF Renewables during the December 2024 visit, with the Rabigh plant coming online in 2026. Veolia signed a circular economy and recycling rollout with PIF’s Saudi Investment Recycling Company during the same visit.

Mobility: PIF’s continued commitment to Lucid Motors, the Saudi-international commercial bridge in electric vehicles, scaled in April 2026 with the additional 550 million US dollar commitment for the Uber 35,000 vehicle robotaxi programme.

Defence: France-Saudi negotiations for approximately 54 Dassault Rafale fighter jets are advancing through 2026, following the Saudi Deputy Defence Minister’s visit to Dassault headquarters. A signed transaction in the second half of the year would convert the bilateral defence relationship for a generation.

Commercial: Vision Golfe 2026 in Bercy on 18 to 19 June, under President Macron’s High Patronage, structured around the six sectors of Saudi Vision 2030 priority spending. France-Saudi bilateral trade reached 8.2 billion euros in 2024, with Saudi Arabia ranking as France’s largest GCC trade partner.

What this means for the execution question

If the political risk question is closed by the Council structure, the remaining question for international firms is operational. Specifically: does the firm have execution capacity on the ground in Saudi Arabia? Most international small and mid-cap firms do not. Most do not have a Saudi entity, a Saudi licence holder, a banked relationship, the regulatory registrations (ZATCA, social security, the National Address registration that became mandatory in January 2026), or the in-Kingdom presence required to bid for Saudi contracts.

The political legitimacy is in place. The bilateral spending channel is mapped. The commercial events are scheduled. The remaining gap is execution capacity.

What we do

audixintel closes the execution gap. From the first operating entity decision through the in-Kingdom setup, the licences, the banking, the compliance registrations, and the partner relationships. From landing to raising funds in-Kingdom.

Sources

audixintel

Saudi market entry, made operational.

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