France Signs Nuclear Energy Deals With Qatar, UAE

France this week signed nuclear energy deals with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Dec. 11, 2007).

The deals came as French President Nicolas Sarkozy toured the Middle East.  They follow similar arrangements with Algeria and Libya.

A subsidiary of the French nuclear power group Areva finalized an agreement with Qatar on Monday to install electricity-producing substations throughout the nation.

Qatari officials also signed a memorandum of understanding with the energy firm Electricite de France to “discuss cooperation in the production of nuclear power and renewable — solar and wind — energies,” said a member of Sarkozy’s delegation.

While in Saudi Arabia yesterday, Sarkozy repeated a standing offer to provide Muslim and Arab nations with technical assistance to build up their civilian nuclear energy capabilities.

“It is in the name of justice that France believes that access to civilian nuclear power should be the right of all peoples,” Sarkozy told Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council (Nadege Puljak, Agence France-Presse I/Google News, Jan. 14).

France and the United Arab Emirates today signed military and civilian nuclear energy cooperation agreements, AFP reported.

The nuclear deal, finalized as Sarkozy visited Abu Dhabi, “outlines a cooperation framework for the assessment and possible use of nuclear energy for peaceful ends,” state media in the United Arab Emirates said (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Jan. 15).

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