Djibouti, France launch review of defense agreement

France and Djibouti launched a review of the defense agreement between Paris and this strategically located country on the Horn of Africa.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu received Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Hassan Omar Mohamed Bourhan, Minister of Defense, in Paris, according to a joint statement from the French ministries.

“The meeting launched the review of the Defense Cooperation Treaty (TCMD) between Djibouti and France, the framework for which was set out in the joint declaration by the President of the Republic and his Djiboutian counterpart, Mr Ismaël Omar Guelleh, in 2021”, the statement said.

An island of stability in a troubled region, Djibouti is a strategic base for France, which intends to maintain its largest overseas military base there, alongside other countries such as the United States and China.

Bound to the former French colony by agreements signed in 1977 and again in 2011, Paris has many reasons for wanting to retain its position in this small country of one million inhabitants, located just a stone’s throw from the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, through which much of the world’s trade between Asia and the West passes.

“The four ministers reaffirmed their shared desire to pursue the strategic partnership between France and Djibouti, and to deepen bilateral relations in all areas of cooperation”, according to the press release.

Africanews/Hauwa M.