Oman

Political relations

France and the Sultanate of Oman have a long-standing, confident relationship based on our military and security cooperation and a shared commitment to resolving conflict through dialogue, in accordance with international law, and in multilateral forums.

Bilateral strategic dialogue is generally held yearly, at the level of the Secretaries-General of the French and Omani Foreign Ministries. A France-Oman joint commission on economic and cultural issues meets every two years or so (the last one took place in 2016).

Economic relations

Bilateral trade between France and Oman stood at €277 million in 2020, down 46.7% on the previous year. This decline is due to a drop in our exports (down 39.9% and falling every year, to €255 million), caused by the completion of contracts in the aviation sector and the closing of the Sultanate in March 2020 during the COVID-19 crisis, and the collapse of French imports from Oman, which slid by 80% in one year to just €22 million. This can mainly be explained by the total cessation of our purchases of refined petroleum products and coke in 2020, as they represented 82% of French imports in 2019, equivalent to €86 million.

Despite encouraging results in 2018 and 2019, France’s market share continues to fall in the long term, dropping from 2.4% in 2002 to 0.7% in 2020. France now ranks 25th among Oman’s suppliers, behind the United Arab Emirates (43%), China (8%), India (5.2%) and our major European competitors, Germany (2.1%), the Netherlands (1.4%) and the United Kingdom (1.1%).

In the first half of 2021, bilateral trade between France and Oman stood at €106 million, a year-on-year decrease of 8.3%. In detail, our exports to the Sultanate dropped by 30% to €74 million, against a public health backdrop marked by a more severe closing of the Sultanate than in the first half of 2020. Our imports from Oman picked up during the same period, to reach €32 million.

In terms of investments, France is a leading economic player in Oman, with significant market share in electricity and water, waste management, oil and gas, security, logistics, retail and corporate services. Some 40 French companies are established in Oman, including Air Liquide, Apave, Axa, Bolloré Logistics, Carrefour, CMA-CGM, Idemia, JCDecaux, Newrest, Schneider Electric, Suez, Thales, TotalEnergies and Veolia.