President Emmanuel Macron made a plea to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to help Europe move away from Russian oil and gas during a one-to-one dinner at the presidential palace in Paris on Thursday.
During the meeting, Macron “stressed the importance of continuing the coordination with Saudi Arabia to diversify the energy supplies of European states,” according to a statement shared by Macron’s office on Friday, which largely insisted on the coordination between the two countries.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European countries have been looking for alternatives to Russian oil and gas, and Macron has reached out to leaders of oil-producing countries to contribute, recently welcoming the Emirati leader to Paris for a state visit, and speaking to his Iranian counterpart by phone.
Before the meeting, an official in Macron’s office had said that the president planned to lay out his expectations for the outcome of an upcoming meeting of OPEC countries, advocating for the group to raise oil output to help lower prices, but didn’t expect any announcement or commitments immediately.
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