African Diplomacy Observer

Amadou Toumani Touré, the President of the Republic of Mali  arrived in Algeria on Friday 23 November 2007 for a two-day visit of state at the invitation of his counterpart, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. During this visit, President Toure is due to sign minutes of the 10th session of the Algerian-Malian Border Bilateral Commission held in Algiers on 19 and 20 November. He is also expected to examine with President Bouteflika means to strengthen the cooperation and concertation so that they become strategic axis of their bilateral relations.

This visit will be the occasion for addressing issues of mutual interest, notably for population living in border areas, in which cooperation should be strengthened. These issues include the circulation of persons and goods, cooperation between border security services, realization of the trans-Saharan road, development of the barter border trade, and the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration.

According to the Algerian Delegate Minister in charge of Local Collectivities, Dahou Ould Kablia, the results of the 10th session of the Algerian-Malian Border Bilateral Commission will certainly trigger a new momentum for this cooperation and set up an institutional framework that will deepen cooperation ties between the two countries, notably at their border areas.

Source: Le Jeune Indépendant

Côte d’Ivoire Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Youssouf Bakayoko, undertook a friendship and work visit to Kuweit from 13-14 November 2007. the Ivorian Foreign Minister was invited by his Kuwaiti counterpart and ws also carrying a message of the Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, for the Kuwaiti leader, His Highness the Emir Cheick Sabah Al-Ahmed El Sabah.

During his visit, H.E. Youssouf Bakayoko also had talks with the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister, the Governor of the Kuwaiti Development Bank and other authorities with whom he evoked recent developments in the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire since the signing of the political peace Ouagadougou Agreement in March 2007 and addressed reasons for delays in its implementation. Ivorian Minister nonetheless emphasized the shared political will of the different parties for a rapid and definitive end of the crisis. H.E Youssouf Bakayoko received strong assurances of the Emir that his country was committed to taking the lead in conveying and hosting the Donor Round Table aims to raise necessary fund to support Côte d’Ivoire in the reconstruction of areas destroyed or damaged during the crisis. The decision of conveying this meeting had been taken at the 34th session of the Islamic Conference of the Foreign Ministers of the Islamic Conference Organization (ICO) held in Islamabad (Pakistan) from 15-17 May 2007.

Source: Côte d’Ivoire MFA

Ambassador John Negroponte, the US Deputy Secretary of State, will carry out an African tour that will bring him to Côte d’Ivoire as from the 10th of November 2007. During this step, the US official will seize this opportunity to learn from the Ivorian peace process evolution. He will meet with the Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, the Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, and with some leaders of the opposition such as Henri Konan Bedié, leader of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire and Alassane Ouattara, leader of the Movement of Republicans.

After the Ivorian step, Ambassador Negroponte, accompanied by a delegation made of several officials of the State Department, including Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, is due to visit several other African countries, including Nigeria and Mali.

Source: Notre Voie

The US Special Envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, began on September 26, 2007 a ten-day visit to Sudan, where he hopes to help peace efforts both in Southern Sudan and the war-torn Western region of Darfur. He is scheduled to meet with Sudanese officials on Thursday to discuss the situation in Darfur and to travel to that region later this week. He is also expected to travel to Southern Sudan where a 2005 peace agreement is said to be in jeopardy. According to some US diplomats, Natsios will also help negotiate border demarcation between North and South and particularly the statute of the oil-producing central Abiye region.

Andrew Natsios was appointed by Georges Bush on September 19, 2006, while addressing the UN General Assembly, as his Special Envoy for Sudan. He is a Professor on the Practice of Diplomacy and Advisor of International Development at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Source: VOA News

French Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Cooperation, Development and Francophonie, Mrs. Brigitte Girardin, undertook a trip in Africa. She visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on 24 March 2007, Seychelles (29 Mars-1 April 2007) and Mauritius (2-3 April 2007). During her visit to the DRC, the Minister met with the president, Mr. Joseph Kabila, with who she talked about the political situation and the way ahead in the peacebuilding process since elections held in October 2006. The French Minister visit marked France commitment to supporting Congolese authorities democratically elected and more generally its commitment to contributing to the country recovery and efforts towards sustainable peace and development. She also met with the Prime Minister, Mr. Antoine Gizenga and the Foreign Minister, Mr. Mboussa Nyamwisi. She signed a framework document (the first cooperation agreement between the two countries since seventeen years) establishing a partnership within which France will provide during five years a financial aid of 235 millions euros.

In Seychelles, Mrs Girardin had talks with the president, Mr. James Michel, the vice-president and other government officials and met with the leader of the opposition, Wavel Ramkalawan. She also signed a bilateral agreement aims to promote and protect investments in the area of tourism; an agreement intending to facilitate employment of people from the Reunion Island (a French overseas Department in the Indian Ocean). This visit was also an occasion to meet with french entrepreneurs operating in the fishing sector.

In Mauritius, on April 2, she met the Prime Minister, Mr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, as well as several members of the Government and signed a framework document of partnership which, accompaning an economic transition programme for Mauritius, sets up priorities for their bilateral cooperation for the 2007-2011 period. This partnership will be made of an amount of 252 million euros.

Mrs. Girardin also inaugurated the new buildings of the French Agency for Development (AFD) and signed the first annual convention providing a global budgetary assistance of 24 million euros. Lastly, she signed an agreement between the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Republic of Mauritius aiming at facilitating the movement of the nationals Mauritians to the Reunion Island.

During her stay in Mauritius, Mrs. Girardin was supposed to take part, on April 3, in the 23rd Council of Ministers of the Commission of the Indian Ocean (COI). The Council of the COI was to examine the preparation of important projects of cooperation for the future of the region, in particular a project of the AFD of 6 million euros intended to reinforce the monitoring and the prevention of the epidemics such as that of the chikungunya, which had touched this area in 2005 and 2006.

Source: French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

John Negroponte, the US Deputy Secretary of State, undertook on 11 April 2007, an eight-day-trip throughout Africa. During this trip, the US Senior officials will visit Sudan, Chad, Libya and Mauritania. In Sudan and Chad, he will certainly address the security and humanitarian situations in the Western Province of Darfur and its regional implications, in the Eastern part of Chad notably as well as ongoing efforts to achieve peace in Sudan through implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and particularly to stabilize the situation through the effective setting up of a hybrid UN-AU mission. In Mauritania, the Deputy Secretary will attend the inauguration of the newly elected president, Mohamed Ould Cheikk Adellahi and meet with some African Leaders who will be present.

The US Deputy Secretary is accompanied by the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, and the Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President for African Affairs at the National Security Council, Bobby Pittman, Jr., and Representatives from the Department of Defense and USAID.

Source: US Department of State

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egyp, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, met with the Secretary General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, on 5 March 2007 at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels (Belgium). During this visit, the first of an Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs ever organized to NATO, the NATO Secretary General and the Foreign Minister discussed regional security situation and practical issues related to the future of NATO-Egypt cooperation; a cooperation rooted in the context of the Mediterranean Dialogue, decided at the June 2004 Istanbul Summit, between NATO and its Mediterranean Dialogue partners (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia).

The Mediterranean Dialogue aims at contributing to regional security and stability, achieving better mutual understanding and dispelling any misconceptions about NATO among Dialogue countries and includes political and practical (including military) dimensions such as:

- Regular high level political consultations between NATO and Mediterranean Dialogue partners;

- Visits by NATO Senior Officials, including the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General, to Mediterranean Dialogue countries;

- Seminars, workshops and other practical activities in the fields of public diplomacy (information and press activities, scientific and environmental cooperation), civil emergency planning, crisis management, border security, small arms & light weapons, defence reform and defence economics, as well as consultations on terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD);

- Invitations to Dialogue countries to observe - and in some cases participate - in NATO/PfP military exercises, attend courses and other academic activities at the NATO School (SHAPE) in Oberammergau (Germany) and the NATO Defense College in Rome (Italy), and visit NATO military bodies.

Source: NATO

The African Union (AU) Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Said Djinnit, visited NATO Headquarters on 2 March 2007. During this visit, he met with NATO Secretary-General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and addressed the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s principal decision-making body. This is the second visit of an AU official after that of the Chairman of the AU Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare in May 2005.

These visits marked the willingness of the AU to progressively set-up a long-term partnership with NATO in the capacity-building and training areas. The implication of NATO and particularly its commitment to Africa’s stability is very recent. In that regard, since July 2005, NATO provided airlift in and out of Dafur for almost 24,000 AU peacekeepers, as well as training to African military observers and other AU-led mission officers to Darfur. Through this cooperation, NATO became a considerable actor in the stability of Africa. However, the direct implication of NATO in Africa through sending troops to undertake stability or peacekeeping operations is not foreseeable in the near future.