SENEGAL: WADE-SARKOZY ENCOUNTER GONE AWRY

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAKAR 001079 SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, EUR/WE, INR/AA E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/16/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR FR MR SG SUBJECT: SENEGAL: WADE-SARKOZY ENCOUNTER GONE AWRY REF: DAKAR 497 Classified By: Political Counselor David G. Mosby for reasons 1.5 B/D. ¶1. (C) Summary: According to the French embassy, the recent meeting between the French and Senegalese presidents did not go well. The French were astonished that President Abdoulaye Wade spent most of the meeting talking about his belief that he will win a Nobel Peace Prize this year. End summary. ¶2. (C) According to French Political Officer Aurelie Royet, President Abdoulaye Wade's meeting with President Nicholas Sarkozy did not go well. Royet told Political Counselor that Sarkozy and his advisers were reportedly shocked by the lack of substance in the meeting. While Sarkozy had been briefed and prepared to discuss, among other things, the ongoing political crisis in Zimbabwe and Wade's role, peacekeeping in Darfur (to which Senegal has contributed a battalion and promised a second),the peace accord Wade negotiated between Chad and Sudan, as well as the devastating floods in the Dakar suburbs and elsewhere, President Wade spent most of the meeting discussing his conviction that he will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year. ¶3. (C) Apparently, when asked about the flooding, Wade waved the matter away saying, "we're used to it." Wade also raised his "Great Green Wall" proposal to plant a forest from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean coasts of Africa to halt the advance of the Sahara. Finally, he described his agricultural initiative the "Great Agricutural Program for Food and Abundance" (GOANNA) -- which is supposed to make Senegal self-sufficient in food by 2015 -- (reftel) as well underway and that he expects it to successfully address Senegal's food commodities shortage. ¶4. (C) Royet said that the coup d'etat in Mauritania was not raised during the meeting. According to her, the French were not pleased by Wade's comments to the press after the meeting. However, the GOF had not yet taken a decision to react officially. ¶5. (C) COMMENT: This was the third meeting between Wade and Sarkozy. On each occasion the French have reacted with shock and dismay by what they viewed as the trivial and obsessive nature of the issues Wade has chosen to address with Sarkozy. On the first two occasions -- first on the margins of the World Food Summit in Rome and then on the margins of the G8 Summit in Japan -- Wade complained that the French sent a representative to the opening ceremony of the opposition-sponsored "National Dialogue"(as did most EU embassies and the United States). Discussion with several French embassy personnel including the defense attach, the consul general, as well as the French legal adviser to President Wade (who happens to be married to Royet) make it clear that the consensus view of French officials in Dakar is that Wade is delusional, if not worse. It is unclear if this view is shared in by Sarkozy or French Foreign Ministery officials in Paris. Finally, Wade's obsession with winning the Nobel Prize has become a recurring theme in Dakar circles, but this is the first we have heard of him so clearly articulating his hopes of winning it. According to the Israeli ambassador, his government is convinced that Wade's desire to win the prestigious award has spurred him to provide his services as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, against Israeli wishes. BERNICAT BERNICAT