All eyes on Africa in the great power game

Arabnewsksa03 Oct, 2021News

The UK-US-Australia security deal in September was a significant foreign policy setback in Asia-Pacific for Emmanuel Macron, but he will seek to get back on the front foot in a different continent on Friday when hehosts the first France-Africa summit of his presidency. Africa has long been a foreign policy priority for Paris. For almost a century and a half, France maintained a substantial empire stretching from the Maghreb through the Western and Central sub-Saharan regions. While direct rule ended in the early 1960s, French influence continued via political, security, economic and cultural connections in Francophone Africa.