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Togo: French President Emmanuel Macron will receive Faure Gnassingbé at the Élysée Palace on May 10

Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace on April 9, 2021. The two heads of state are due to meet again in Paris on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. AFP - LUDOVIC MARIN

Text by: Paulina Zidi Follow

1 min

If they will meet in London this Saturday, May 6 for the coronation of the new King Charles III, it is in Paris that Emmanuel Macron and Faure Gnassingbé must meet Wednesday, May 10, 2023. The two men have not seen each other bilaterally for nearly two years and a previous visit to the Elysee Palace of the Togolese head of state, in April 2021.

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If the principle of this visit was already recorded for several days, we now know the date: it will be May 10. The two presidents will therefore have "an interview in the evening," says a source close to the Elysee. And security issues will be at the heart of this meeting.

On the one hand because Togo has been the target of jihadist attacks for 18 months, as President Faure Gnassingbé acknowledged a few days ago. Armed incursions in the north of the country, in the Savannah region, which left a hundred civilians dead and nearly 40 in the ranks of the army.

On the other hand, because the French president has been meeting, in recent months, the heads of state who are concerned by the rearticulation of the military apparatus on the continent. For the West and the Sahel region, Faure Gnassingbé is one of the last not to have been received to discuss this new military dynamic.

To prepare for this meeting, there were upstream exchanges between the authorities of the two countries. On 9th March the French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, met with her Togolese counterpart, Robert Dussey. And at the end of March, it was the Secretary of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, who went to Lomé for a working visit.

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Read on on the same topics:

  • Togo
  • France
  • Emmanuel Macron
  • Faure Gnassingbé
  • Diplomacy