Foreign Relations of France - Africa

Iran has generally enjoyed a friendly relationship with France since the Middle Ages. The travels of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier are particularly well known to Safavid Persia. Recently however, relations have soured over Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment and France supporting the referral of Iran to the United Nations Security Council. Under French President Jacques Chirac, relations were warm and friendly as the French government helped the Iranian government to hunt down PMOI terrorists.

Before Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991, France enjoyed friendly relations with former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, however the relationship turned sour once Iraq entered Kuwaiti soil and soon France cut off ties with Iraq. Following thirteen years, France resumed relations with Iraq in 2003. Iraq has an embassy in Paris and France has an embassy and a representative office in Baghdad.

France, the former colonial power, enjoys friendly relations with Lebanon and has often provided support to the Lebanese.

France recognized the SNC on November 21, 2011.

Relations between the two countries have not always been cordial due to the former French government's policy of supporting militant separatists in Angola's Cabinda province and the international Angolagate scandal embarrassed both governments by exposing corruption and illicit arms deals. Following French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit in 2008, relations have improved.

The French military has been present in Chad since 1986 in the frame of Operation Epervier.

France and Germany decided on a concerted military operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This operation included sending 1500 European troops to the DRC to support fair and regular presidential elections in June 2006. While Germany leads the mission, both France and Germany provide 500 soldiers each, with the rest of the soldiers coming from other European countries.

Many scholars of the European Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) question whether the mission is of great use, and argue that it is rather symbolic in character. With 17.000 United Nations forces already deployed in the DRC the purpose of such a small operation remains questionable. The European troops will be stationed in the capital-city Kinshasa only. It is probable however, that the expertise of former peace-building missions on the Balkans will be useful in order to prevent any major escalation during the elections.

Since independence, Gabon has been "one of France's closest allies in Africa". As of 2008, around 10,000 French nationals lived and worked in Gabon, while the 6th Marine Infantry Battalion of the French military is also stationed there.

In the 1980s, Libyan-French discord centered on the situation in Chad. As mentioned, the two countries found themselves supporting opposite sides in the Chadian Civil War. In late 1987, there were some French troops in Chad, but French policy did not permit its forces to cross the sixteenth parallel. Thus, direct clashes with Libyan soldiers seemed unlikely.

On March 10, 2011, France was the first country in the world to recognise the National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya, in the context of the 2011 Libyan civil war against Muammar Gaddafi.

The relations date back to the colonial era when Mauritania was part of French West Africa.

The relations between France and the Republic of Niger are based on a long shared history and the more than sixty year rule of Niger by French colonial empire beginning with the French conquest in 1898. Niger obtained independence from France in 1960, and a history of French influenced culture and French language have been a point of commonality in the creation of a distinctive Nigerien culture from the diverse pre-colonial nationalities which make up modern Niger. France benefited economically from their time as a colonial power, and still relies on imports from Niger for elements of their economy.