France wants to “build balanced partnerships” that are “useful” for African countries, Foreign Minister Sébastien Ségournet announced in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Saturday.
Segourina began his first African tour since taking office last January, from Kenya, and later headed to Rwanda and from there to Ivory Coast, his final stop.
He said, in a press conference alongside his Kenyan counterpart, Musalia Mudavadi, that “France's message will be to renew and build balanced partnerships, based on mutual respect, and for the benefit of all countries, with African countries.”
“The whole challenge of our roadmap is to diversify these partnerships, to make them beneficial to the countries in which we will invest,” he added.
He added, “In Africa, the matter is not limited to the Sahel region only, as there is great cooperation,” stressing that “the African continent is on the verge of becoming a cultural, economic, and diplomatic force (…) with a great influence on the balance of the world.”
In Kenya, the economic powerhouse in East Africa, France has strengthened its commercial presence and the number of French companies operating in the country has tripled, from 50 to 140 within a decade.
“It's a work in progress,” Mudavadi said.
The Kenyan Foreign Minister added, “Our measures to address the trade imbalance require continuous plans and joint efforts like the ones we are doing,” explaining that French companies have secured 34,000 direct jobs in Kenya.
The two ministers agreed on areas of cooperation, including sports and transportation infrastructure.
They also called for reforming the global climate financing framework to help poor countries achieve clean development and adapt to the worsening impacts of climate change.
In Rwanda, Sigournet will attend the 30th anniversary of the 1994 genocide that left 800,000 people dead, most of them from the Tutsi minority but also from moderate Hutus.
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