POLITICS: South Africa Forges Close Ties with France

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jean-Jacques Cornish

PRETORIA, Nov 20 2003 (IPS) - South African President Thabo Mbeki’s state visit to France this week was his fourth trip to that country this year.

South Africa acknowledges that its increasingly influential role in Africa notwithstanding it cannot operate successfully without France.

“We know that one cannot deal with the challenges and problems of Africa without having the closest cooperation with France,” Mbeki’s Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad said in advance of the three-day trip.

Addressing a state dinner for his South African guest, President Jacques Chirac underlined his interest in the continent with an assertion that: “France wants to be your best friend in the new struggle that you have undertaken – the African Renaissance. The peoples of Africa must find their place in a globalised world from which they feel excluded.”

The African rescue plan known as the New Programme for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) was the pivotal issue under discussion during the visit that came a week after France hosted a high level meeting trying to create a forum for supporting NEPAD.

There was a meeting of the minds between Mbeki and Chirac on issues as diverse as the return of sovereignty to the Iraqi people and the peace process in Cote d’Ivoire. “Only a swift transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people will provide a solution to this problem,” Chirac told a joint press conference after meeting Mbeki. “We must make sure that it doesn’t happen too late.”

Chirac recalled that both he and Mbeki had fiercely opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, had “shared the same analysis since the beginning of the conflict”.

Mbeki in turn welcomed U.S. moves to accelerate the process of establishing self-rule in Iraq, saying: “The sooner the matter of Iraq is left in the hands of the Iraqis, the better”.

On Cote d’Ivoire, Mbeki illustrated the South African high-pressure methodology in successfully brokering peace deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi in the past year.

“It’s really a matter of sustaining the pressure to make sure that there is movement inside Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire),” Mbeki said.

Although they are at one on the need for multilateral solutions to world problems, Chirac was cautious on the issue of United Nations reform.

South Africa, like most developing countries, believes that the composition of the world organisation – and most particularly the Security Council – does not reflect international realities.

Chirac who leads one of the five permanent members of the council – together with Britain, Russia, China and the United States – was forthright on African aspirations to get a permanent seat.

“It’s up to our African partners to define their priorities,” he said at the press conference with Mbeki. “But it’s clear that in one way or another, Africa must be better represented on the Security Council, among the permanent and non-permanent members,” the French leader said.

Chirac voiced his support for the eventual enlargement of the UN body, voicing support for Germany and Japan to become permanent veto-wielding members.

Mbeki said he and Chirac had not discussed the issue and explained that African nations were still deciding how to approach the question. “There will be a view that comes out of the continent,” he said.

South Africa has not declared its candidacy for an African permanent seat on the council, hoping to be accepted by acclaim if and when reforms are agreed.

The one thorny issue was the South African bid for the 2010 Football World Cup. Mbeki has been positively brazen in seeking political support for South Africa to become the first country on the continent to host this premier sporting event.

South Africa was beaten by Germany by a single vote to host the cup in 2006. On a state visit to Pretoria earlier this month, Brazilian president Lula da Silva, representing arguably the world’s football giant, gave the South African bid his support. Chirac, however, has given the nod to Morocco.

He admitted that Mbeki had vigorously tried to swing his view on it but showed no signs of wavering.

One subject that was not mentioned was allegations that South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma tried to solicit bribes from French arms maker Thales to shield it from a corruption probe over a multi-billion-dollar arms deal.

Mbeki met French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin for lunch before addressing France’s National Assembly and meeting with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.

France was South Africa’s ninth-largest export market in 2002, selling more than one billion dollars in goods and services.

France’s 448 million dollars worth of investments in South Africa made it the ninth biggest foreign investor in South Africa last year.