When French Foreign Minister Michel Jobert leaves this week on a five-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Syria, he will be pursuing an aggressive campaign of economic diplomacy that is fast making France the leading seller of arms to Third World nations. The policy is already bringing handsome dividends to his government. Currently under negotiation is an agreement with Saudi Arabia that would assure France a steady supply of Saudi oil over a 20-year period. The deal could lead eventually to the flow of more than 800,000 bbl. of Saudi oil a day—a total of 5.6 billion bbl., worth about $50 billion at current price levels. The big question is how the French propose to pay for this massive supply of oil.
Part of the payment will certainly come from French arms. Already France has reportedly contracted to sell the Saudis 38 Mirage HiE fighter-bombers, 275 AMX-30 tanks and an assortment of antitank missiles and amphibious equipment. In addition, the French are negotiating with the Saudis to equip the tanks with advanced laser aiming devices and infra-red detector systems —which would make them the most sophisticated tanks in the world.
The French have taken great exception to the inference that their pending agreement with Saudi Arabia is in fact an "oil for arms" deal. "We have arms to sell, and there are arms the Arabs want to buy," declares one French official. "But arms are not specifically mentioned in these agreements."
The fact is that almost all of France's trade relations with Third World countries involve weaponry. Though both the U.S. and the Soviet Union rank well ahead of France in total arms exports (some $5 billion for the U.S. last year, and some $4 billion for the Russians), a large percentage of what the superpowers send is part of military-assistance programs. In sales alone, France exported $1.4 billion worth of armaments last year, and since 1969 it has sold arms to no fewer than 43 countries.
Some of its largest deals last year included Mirage jet fighters to Zaire, AMX-30 tanks to Venezuela, antitank missiles to several Middle East countries and Super Frelon helicopters to China. Recently, it is reported, France agreed to sell a fleet of Mirages to the tiny Persian Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi (pop. 80,000).*
Huge Surge. Pakistan's air force also flies Mirages, and its army—like India's—is partially supplied with French weapons (though the U.S. has been Pakistan's principal arms supplier, and the Soviet Union is India's). In Africa, where France supplies 13 of its 15 former colonies, as well as several other states, the duration of the Nigerian civil war can probably be attributed as much to the steady flow of French weaponry to breakaway Biafra as to the fighting spirit of the Ibos. In Latin America, France has sold arms to nine nations (including 106 Mirage 5s to Argentina and 111 Mirage mcs to Brazil). Currently it is offering its Exocet antiship missile to both the left-wing military dictatorship of Peru and the right-wing military dictatorship of Chile.