Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07PARIS4592
2007-11-29 10:12:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Paris
Cable title:  

MAURITANIA: AMBASSADOR BOULWARE'S CONSULTATIONS

Tags:  PREL KDEM EAID ECON MR FR 
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RR RUEHPA
DE RUEHFR #4592/01 3331012
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 291012Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1278
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 0950
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 0914
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 1083
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 2741
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 8655
RUEHLI/AMEMBASSY LISBON 1054
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 0768
RUEHGI/AMEMBASSY BANGUI 0132
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1597
RUEHLU/AMEMBASSY LUANDA 0896
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS 2137
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 004592 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/29/2017
TAGS: PREL KDEM EAID ECON MR FR
SUBJECT: MAURITANIA: AMBASSADOR BOULWARE'S CONSULTATIONS
IN PARIS (NOVEMBER 19)

REF: BANGUI 286

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 004592

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/29/2017
TAGS: PREL KDEM EAID ECON MR FR
SUBJECT: MAURITANIA: AMBASSADOR BOULWARE'S CONSULTATIONS
IN PARIS (NOVEMBER 19)

REF: BANGUI 286


1. (C) SUMMARY: French officials meeting with U.S.
Ambassador to Mauritania Mark Boulware in Paris on November
19 hailed Mauritania's transition to democracy, which the
French said they would tout as an example to other African
countries and use to justify rewarding Mauritania for its
good behavior. At the same time, the French noted
Mauritania's fragile and vulnerable state, especially with
respect to its porous coast and borders, increased drug
smuggling and illegal migration, and the possibility of
terrorist and Tuareg incursions in northern Mauritania. Our
French interlocutors hoped that Mauritania, with assistance
from outside partners, could engage in sustained economic
development, which would relieve possibly debilitating
pressures and avoid civil unrest. President Sarkozy has
developed a personal interest in Mauritania and wants to
promote Mauritania during the EU Summit in Portugal December
8-9. The French noted their plans to host a donors,
conference on Mauritania in Paris December 4-6, which
Ambassador Boulware said the U.S. planned to attend.
Ambassador Boulware stressed similar USG goals for Mauritania
and noted the general convergence of USG and French policies.
Our contact at the Presidency said that Sarkozy had
developed a dislike for African Union Commission Chairman
Konare, based on his perceived anti-Western stance on a
number of fronts. This contact also noted friction Chinese
immigrants to Angola were beginning to provoke there. END
SUMMARY.


2. (U) Mark Boulware, newly confirmed Ambassador to
Mauritania, on November 19 met with MFA DAS-equivalent for
West Africa Christine Fages and Mauritania desk officer
Sophie Villette, and, separately, with Romain Serman, one of
the AF Advisors at the French Presidency.

Meeting at MFA
--------------

3. (C) While lauding Mauritania's continuing success in
transitioning to democracy, DAS-equivalent Fages said that
Mauritania's situation was "delicate." She noted the recent

successful visit of President Abdallahi and France's desire
to send a positive signal in recognizing Mauritania's
transition to democracy, which France very much wanted to see
continue. Fages underscored the need for economic reforms,
and at several points noted that rising prices in basic
goods, including food and petroleum products, could stress
Mauritania's social fabric, even to the point of provoking
social unrest. This, she said, required encouragement of
economic reform, particularly in the private sector. Fages
noted that France would host a donors, conference on
Mauritania in Paris December 4-6, which Ambassador Boulware
said the U.S. was planning to attend.


4. (C) Fages discussed at some length Mauritania's
vulnerabilities, focusing on its poorly secured borders and
coastline, which made illegal trafficking of all kinds
easier. She expressed special concern about the growth in
drug smuggling and illegal migration, with Mauritania an
increasingly important transit point for South American drugs
and a point of exit for Africans from many countries seeking
clandestine entry into Europe. The relatively uncontrolled
desert regions were a problem as well, with local Salafist
elements with links to al-Qaida posing a threat. Fages also
said that Tuareg groups could also cause trouble in northern
and eastern Mauritania, although they (along with the groups
linked to al-Qaida) were not yet causing the same problems in
Mauritania that they were causing in neighboring Mali and
Niger. Nonetheless, border security needed to be improved,
as well as maritime security. Mauritania was porous in many
respects, which made it a tempting locus for criminals and
terrorists. Ambassador Boulware agreed with Fages's general
assessment, and noted Mauritania's inclusion in the USG's
Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership, along with
possible increased USG financial support in this area.
Ambassador Boulware added that USAID would soon open an
office in Nouakchott, which would facilitate U.S. economic
and development support for Mauritania. The U.S. would place

PARIS 00004592 002 OF 003


emphasis, among other things, on working with Mauritania's
youth, in an effort to increase the likelihood of their
becoming productive members of society and less vulnerable to
the temptations of criminal or terrorist groups. Fages
agreed that this was a needed effort.


5. (C) Fages said that Mauritania also had to be considered
from a regional perspective, as many of its problems were
regional in nature. She found some merit in Mali's call for
a regional conference of Sahel countries, where common
problems could be addressed by all concerned parties.
Maritime controls for Mauritania, she noted, would only be
effective if Senegal were included as well. She said that
France was quite willing to coordinate efforts with the U.S.
in these areas. She said that France was in the process of
authorizing the transfer of two maritime patrol craft to
Mauritania to improve maritime controls.


6. (C) It was also important, Fages observed, for
Mauritania and Senegal to work together to improve relations,
seriously weakened since the 1989 rupture. She noted
especially the sensitive issue of allowing Mauritanian
refugees in Senegal to return, which was a complex matter in
view of old and conflicting property claims and the like.
Ambassador Boulware said that the U.S. was prepared to
provide USD 500,000 to support refugee return; Fages noted a
possible French contribution of 250,000 Euros (about USD
370,000). She said that Mauritania needed to avoid putting
returned refugees into "ghettos."

Meeting at Presidency
--------------

7. (C) While making many of the same points that Fages
made, Romain Serman, one of President Sarkozy's AF Advisors,
emphasized the importance France placed politically on
Mauritania as a country that had managed, so far, a
successful democratic transition. He said that France very
much wanted to use Mauritania as a symbol to other African
nations of how to go about making democratic transitions and
reforms. He stated that one of Sarkozy's principles was to
"reward the good and punish the bad," and that in France's
view Mauritania was one of the "good" and would be rewarded.
He noted President Abdallahi's recent visit to Paris (see
October 30 Paris Points),during which France and Mauritania
signed a Partnership Framework Agreement (the standard
document France now uses to set forth its economic and
development assistance program over a five-year period with a
partner country). Originally, France planned to provide
Mauritania with 96 million Euros (about USD 142 million) to
be used for water, education, good governance,
French-language promotion, and research projects. At the
last minute, Sarkozy ordered that the figure be increased, as
part of France's "reward" to Mauritania. (NOTE: Serman did
not provide a final figure. END NOTE.)


8. (C) Moreover, Sarkozy found that Abdallahi was not a
good "public salesman" for Mauritania and that the GOM lacked
public relations skills to present itself in the most
favorable light to potential donors or investors. So, Serman
said, Sarkozy told Abdallahi that "we,ll do it for you."
Serman said that this would take the form of Sarkozy's
praising Mauritania at the EU Summit in Portugal December
8-9. During his address, Sarkozy plans to hail Mauritania's
democratic transition and encourage EU partners to consider
assistance programs for Mauritania. Ambassador Boulware
informed Serman of Mauritania's standing within the MCC
process, noting he was cautiously optimistic that Mauritania
would soon be placed in the "threshold" category, which would
yield immediate new assistance and pave the way for full MCC
status.


9. (C) One area of disagreement between France and
Mauritania concerned Mauritania's desire to be part of the
Mediterranean Union concept that Sarkozy had been trying to
promote. Serman said that France would not support full
membership in such a Union, noting that Munich was closer to
the Mediterranean than Nouakchott, that it would make no
sense to allow Germany into a Mediterranean Union, and that

PARIS 00004592 003 OF 003


Mauritania should not expect full membership. However, he
said that Mauritania could become an observer should such a
Union take shape.


10. (C) Serman, providing a broader view of France's Africa
policies, discussed a number of topics other than Mauritania.
In the context of the difficulties in raising contributions
for UNAMID in Sudan and the EU-UN mission in Chad and the
Central African Republic, Serman noted that Sarkozy had
developed an antipathy for African Union Commission Chairman
Konare. Sarkozy did not like Konare's apparent policy of
equating AU or African "ownership" of an issue to mean the
exclusion of non-Africans, in, for example, the case of
Konare's preference that peacekeepers for missions in African
countries be "100 percent African." Sarkozy also did not
like Konare's reluctance to supoort placing strict and
transparent controls over how aid provided to African
countries by donors such as France would be monitored, to
allow for accountability and to avoid a corrupt siphoning off
of assistance. Serman was quite firm in setting forth
Sarkozy's distaste for Konare.


11. (C) In commenting on Mauritania's "good" behavior,
Serman noted the C.A.R. as an example of "bad" behavior, with
respect to attempts to force French companies (e.g., Total
and Areva) to pay extravagant fees that were really no more
than bribes. He said that such behavior was not going
unnoticed by the GOF and implied that it would count against
countries such as the C.A.R. down the road. (NOTE: Our
impression of current GOF attitudes towards the C.A.R. is
consistent with the views contained in reftel, particularly
with respect to the emphasis Serman placed on Sarkozy's
intention to "reward the good and punish the bad."
Ambassador Boulware met with Serman at the Presidency the
same day that Bozize had his notably frosty meeting with
Sarkozy. END NOTE.)


12. (C) Finally, Serman noted the growing, and increasingly
problematic, Chinese diaspora in Africa, citing the case of
Angola. He said that there were now some 50,000 Chinese in
Angola who were offering "no collateral benefits" to
Angolans, who were tiring of big Chinese resource-oriented
projects that were not adding much to the Angolan economy in
terms of jobs for locals or technology transfer. Instead,
Chinese of all levels of education and ability were arriving
in Angola and displacing small merchants and even the Syrian
and Lebanese families who had long done business there and
elsewhere in Africa. Serman suggested that the presence of
these Chinese could cause social problems in Angola and in
other parts of Africa, and that this could lead Angolans and
other Africans to view more favorably their older and more
familiar traditional partners, such as France.


13. (U) Ambassador Boulware has cleared this message.


Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm


STAPLETON