Militarily, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France negotiated a defence cooperation agreement to diversify the UAE's procurement of weaponry, in addition to a significant military relationship with the United States; France is one of the country’s primary providers of military matériel.[1]
Culturally, as of 2008[update] the Sorbonne university and Louvre museum were both establishing extensions in the UAE,[2] and there was a plan to recreate a miniature Lyon city in Dubai complete with public squares, restaurants and museums.[3]
On May 25, 2009, French president Nicolas Sarkozy visited Abu Dhabi, UAE, where he and the UAE's president Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan formally opened a French military base, France's first permanent base in the Gulf, with up to 500 French troops.[4] Sarkozy also visited the site of a Louvre Museum branch which France is opening in the United Arab Emirates. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that co-operation with France was a top priority of UAE foreign policy.[5]
