Gimmicks and savoir-faire go hand-in-hand for the French in Africa, muses Eva Dadrian In the rushed and flamboyant manner that has become part of his image, Nicolas Sarkozy announced last week that France will renegotiate all its defence accords with African countries. Addressing the South African parliament in Cape Town, the French president declared that, "France has no call to maintain armed forces in Africa indefinitely." Like all his speeches to Africans, this one is also marred by controversies. Continuing his famous "strike now, think later" strategy, the French president was quick to reassure France's African allies by saying that he doesn't mean the existing agreements "should necessarily be scrapped and that everything should be erased with the stroke of a pen." On the contrary, he went to say that the existing defence agreements "must reflect Africa as it is today and not as it was yesterday." But, could that be a misquote? Perhaps what he really meant was that the agreements should "reflect France as it is today" under his presidency. Since gaining independence from France in the 1960s, a number of former French colonies have signed defence cooperation agreements with Paris. These agreements include not only French military bases and troops providing military assistance, but also the implicit -- and much criticised -- backing and support for selected rulers and other dictators which the French presence provides. The most recent of these very special French military "security operations" took place in Chad, just a few weeks ago. Apart from its military base in Chad, France maintains three other bases on the continent; namely Senegal, Gabon and the very large base in Djibouti, home to some 2,900 troops. Djibouti is of vital importance to France, as it gives the French Ministry of Defence a strategic position not only in Africa but also in the Indian Ocean, the Gulf and the Middle East. The port of Djibouti harbours frigates of the French Navy, giving France another advantage over other Western powers. According to the agreement with the Djibouti government, French submarines and aircraft-carriers are also based there. Deploying from Djibouti, the French frigates play a major role in the surveillance of the coastal waters around Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. They are a major deterrent against piracy and often accompany cargo vessels ferrying food aid from the World Food Programme base in Mombassa to Somalia. Nevertheless, the French president means business, and of course business is to be on his own terms. "Since his election last May, Nicolas Sarkozy has been saying to whoever wants to listen that he wants to replace the 50- year-old murky relations with African governments with a more "adult, responsible and transparent" partnership. So in terms of French military presence, his new policy for Africa doesn't mean military disengagement. In the past two decades, France has had painful experiences and more than once its military operations have turned sour: first in Rwanda and more recently in Cote d'Ivoire. And it's in that respect that the French president is determined to put an end to French military interventions that would eventually tarnish even further France's image in Africa. For him, maintaining a military presence on the African continent is part of the game, but getting involved in military operations for maintenance of peace and security in the continent will only be conducted in collaboration with African countries and other Western powers. One of the first of these agreements is RECAMP (Reinforcement of African Peacekeeping Capabilities). Focussing on teaching African forces how to keep a local crisis from becoming regional, RECAMP is a French initiative supported by a number of donor and observer countries, including the US, Japan and most of Europe. There is also the actual French military contribution to Eurofor, the European Force for Chad and Centrafrique. Some 600 troops are already deployed in Chad, and Eurofor will have 3,700 troops out of which 2,100 will be French and the rest will come from Austria, Ireland, Belgium and Sweden, with Italy providing a field hospital and medical support. Added to this new military policy for Africa, President Sarkozy is pursuing closer business and trade links with the continent. He started rolling out his business carpet in North Africa by distributing civilian nuclear power stations to Libya, Morocco, Algeria and Egypt. Then he announced that his government would increase bilateral aid to the continent to 10 billion euros ($15 billion) over the next five years, with a further 2.5 billion euros in aid to be used to create nearly 300,000 jobs on the continent. As usual, the French president was accompanied by some 40 chief executives of top French enterprises on his recent forays. On one of them, the French industrial group Alstom signed a $2 billion deal with Eskom, the crises-ridden South African power utility, for a much-needed coal-fired power plant. This new deal comes just a few months after a similar $1.7 billion contract was awarded to Alstom for Eskom's Medupi plant. Alstom was joined by Areva, the French nuclear power company, in the bid to build Eskom's new $15.5 billion nuclear plant. According to French and South African officials, this contract is expected to be awarded in the middle of this year.
