Macron offers French help to secure Red Sea oil routes
The offer comes as Saudi exports through the Bab el-Mandeb strait remain far below normal and the EU's existing naval mission is stretched thin.
Published
Map: The Red Sea, marking Bab el Mandeb, Suez Canal
President Emmanuel Macron said France is ready to help secure oil exports moving through the Red Sea.
Saudi oil exports through the Bab el-Mandeb strait have run at under a third of normal levels since early August, as Houthi attacks continue to disrupt shipping through the route. The strait is one of the world's busiest for oil tankers, linking the Gulf to the Suez Canal and onward to European and American markets.
The European Union already runs a naval mission in the Red Sea, but the bloc's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said it needs more than 10 additional naval and air assets to be effective. Macron's offer would add to that mission, though he did not say what ships or aircraft France would send, or when they might arrive.
For oil markets, the offer is marginally bullish given how much Saudi traffic through Bab el-Mandeb has already been cut. But its practical effect depends on whether France can actually deploy meaningful naval assets, and European capacity in the region is already stretched thin, with Brussels' own assessment of the existing mission finding it well short of what is needed.