Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday for a state visit just as a political crisis threatens to topple the French government.
Macron touched down in Riyadh where he was due to hold talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman later on Monday, an AFP journalist said.
Macron is beginning the first state visit by a French president to Saudi Arabia since Jacques Chirac in 2006, cementing what the presidency calls a “very close relationship”.
He arrives as France’s less than three-month-old minority government faces the prospect of being forced out by a no-confidence vote in the coming days.
Macron’s three-day stay also coincides with a flare-up of violence in Syria, where anti-government rebels have seized Aleppo, the second largest city.
The fighting in Syria comes after France helped to broker a fragile ceasefire in neighboring Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting Iran proxy Hezbollah.