Online Reporter
Gibson Nyikadzino
Zimpapers Politics Hub
FRANCE has pledged to continue pursuing an autonomous and more independent foreign policy when engaging Zimbabwe, a position it says it has maintained since 2003.
This is despite pressure from other governments that were bent on making Zimbabwe an outcast.
At a joint media address with the Ambassador of Kenya to Zimbabwe, Getrude Nyausi Angote, ahead of the Africa Forward Summit to be co-hosted by Kenya and France in Nairobi on 11 and 12 May, the French Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Paul-Bertrand Barets, said:
“We are autonomous and more independent in our diplomacy with Africa. In the case of Zimbabwe, in 2003, French President Chirac decided, despite pressure from outside, to invite Zimbabwe to the France-Africa Summit at a time the country was being made an outcast. Through this, we are redefining and renewing our approach with non-French-speaking Africa.”
At least 4 000 delegates drawn from business, youth organisations and civil society are expected to attend the summit to be held under the theme “Africa Forward Summit: Africa-France Partnerships for Innovation and Growth”.
Kenya’s President Dr William Ruto is the first leader from a non-French-speaking African country to co-host the meeting in this format with French President Emmanuel Macron, since the inaugural summit in 1973.
Ambassador Angote said Kenya and Africa will be looking forward to “bridging a new era” and making a historic shift in diplomatic relations with France, focusing on innovation, green energy, food security and tangible solutions to common challenges.
“We are looking to bridging a new era, making a historic a historic shift in diplomatic relations with France. What is important in this dynamic partnership is the unity of Africa on how to achieve the continent’s Agenda 2063.
“As Africa, we are stronger when we achieve together because we need win-win partnerships. This is also a meeting to advocate for reforms that give Africa a fair, deepened aspect and sense,” Ambassador Angote said.
At the core of discussions will be the France-Africa economic partnerships, promotion of projects and initiatives conducted in African and French private sectors, youth engagement, employment and training, sovereignty and competitiveness, peace and security in support of African mediation and African union action.
Some conclusions from the summit will be used to provide substance for preparations of the Group of Seven (G7) Summit, which France will host in Evian from 15 to 17 June.
In 2003, then French President Jacques Chirac was criticised by former British Prime Minister for inviting Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe to the France-Africa Summit in Paris, saying he was making a mockery of the European Union’s attempts to forge a common foreign policy.
This came after a breakdown of diplomatic relations at the turn of the millennium between Harare and London, when the latter sought to internationalise a bilateral dispute following Zimbabwe’s successful agrarian reform programme.
