A speech and a tour in four countries ofAfrica. Emmanuel Macron begins, Monday, February 27, an important African sequence with a major speech at the Elysée devoted to the diplomatic and military strategy of France on this continent.
The President of the Republic must specify his “vision of partnership with African countries” and “the course” he intends to take during his second term, according to the French presidency. He will present “his priorities and his method to deepen the partnership between France, Europe and the African continent”, she added.
He will continue on Wednesday with a tour of four Central African countries: Gabon, Angola, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During the first stage, in Libreville, he will participate in a summit on the preservation of the forests of the Congo River basin.
In July, Emmanuel Macron had already toured Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau. He intends to continue his visits to the continent “almost every six months, or even more”.
Details on the evolution of the French military system
During his speech in Paris on Monday, the President is also expected to address the very sensitive issue of the evolution of the French military posture on the continent after the end of the Barkhane anti-terrorist operation in the Sahel and the forced withdrawal of French troops from Mali and Burkina Faso. These two countries are now controlled by military juntas and a feeling of hostility towards France is alive there.
France still deploys some 3,000 soldiers in the region, particularly in Niger and Chad, after having counted up to 5,500 men there, but it intends to re-articulate its system towards countries in the Gulf of Guinea won by the jihadist push. and be less visible on the ground.
In this region, and on the continent as a whole, the influence of France and Westerners is contested by China or Russia. Thus, three of the four countries that the French president will visit – Gabon, Congo and Angola – abstained last Thursday during the vote on a resolution of the General Assembly of the UN demanding the Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.
A new approach at work
Monday’s speech will echoing that of Ouagadougou, in 2017in which Emmanuel Macron had marked his desire to turn the page with the post-colonial African policy of Paris, the “Françafrique”, marked by political collusion and sulphurous links, and reached out to an increasingly suspicious African youth. vis-à-vis France.
The president, presenting himself as the leader of a new generation, then denounced in front of 800 students the “indisputable crimes” of colonization and called for a “new relationship” with Africa, a pact which he intends to extend to the world. ‘Europe.
This new, more withdrawn approach is confirmed by the Secretary of State for Development, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, who will accompany the French President on his tour.
“Today, African countries choose their partners freely and sovereignly, and that’s good,” she said. She also believes that the anti-French feeling in French-speaking Africa is pushing Paris to change its “posture towards more listening and humility”.
With AFP