French senior foreign policy official makes press conference on her visit to Saudi

Highlighting her current visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Minister Plenipotentiary at the French Foreign Ministry Helen Mori, who is in charge of French people stationed outside their country, expressed happiness to visit Saudi Arabia with the aim to further enhance relations between Saudi Arabia and France, noting that the number of French nationals outside their country amounted to 2.5 million, out of them 6,000 reside in Saudi Arabia. She said at a press conference at the French embassy in Riyadh in the attendance of the French ambassador to the Kingdom Bertrand Besancenot that her current Middle Eastern tour has already taken her to Jordan and Saudi Arabia with Beirut as her next leg. She underscored the importance of her visit to Saudi Arabia, considering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as an important partner of France as the two countries share identical foreign policy, she said citing their firm position towards the Syrian dispute. She said she met during her visit in the Kingdom with Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Salem and Minister of Hajj Dr. Bandar bin Mohammed Hajjar. The French official said she also met with Saudi and French businessmen and discussed with them ways of facilitating investment for French small and medium enterprises. She said there are economic partnerships that need to be enhanced, drawing the attention to the fact that there is still need for better access to the investment market in the Kingdom and encouragement of companies to invest in Saudi Arabia and provide their experience. Mori said that according to the most recent records the number of Saudi students studying in France stood at 1400.