Burkina Faso has good relations with the European Union, African and Asian countries. France, the former colonial power, in particular, continues to provide significant aid and supports Compaoré's developing role as a regional powerbroker. Burkina maintains diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (usually referred to as "Taiwan") instead of the People's Republic of China.
According to the U.S. State Department, "U.S. relations with Burkina Faso are good but subject to strains in the past because of the Compaoré government's past involvement in arms trading and other sanctions-breaking activity."
Burkina Faso's relations with its West African neighbors have improved in recent years. Relations with Ghana, in particular, have warmed with a change in government in that country. President Compaoré has mediated a political crisis in Togo and helped to resolve the Tuareg conflict in Niger. Burkina maintains cordial relations with Libya. A territorial dispute with Mali was mediated by Ghana and Nigeria, which has led to lessening of tensions between the two nations.
Since the 2002 civil war in Côte d'Ivoire, relations between it and Burkina Faso have been filled with accusations of Burkinabé support for rebels on one side and claims of mistreatment of Burkinabé workers on the other. Côte d'Ivoire remains Burkina Faso's largest regional trading partner in spite of their disputes and tens of thousands of Burkinabés continue to work in the Ivory Coast.
Nineteen provinces of Burkina Faso are joined with contiguous areas of Mali and Niger under the Liptako-Gourma Authority, a regional economic organization.
Burkina Faso is also a member of the International Criminal Court with a Bilateral Immunity Agreement of protection for the United States-military (as covered under Article 98)
Famous quotes containing the words foreign and/or relations:
“I journeyed to London, to the timekept City,
Where the River flows, with foreign flotations.
There I was told: we have too many churches,
And too few chop-houses.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The interest in life does not lie in what people do, nor even in their relations to each other, but largely in the power to communicate with a third party, antagonistic, enigmatic, yet perhaps persuadable, which one may call life in general.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)