Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08PARIS965
2008-05-20 15:59:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Paris
Cable title:  

FRANCE/ANGOLA: MAY 23 SARKOZY TRIP A STEP IN

Tags:  PREL EAID AO FR 
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VZCZCXRO8808
PP RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHFR #0965/01 1411559
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 201559Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3096
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PRIORITY
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 1709
RUEHDJ/AMEMBASSY DJIBOUTI PRIORITY 0883
RUEHLGB/AMEMBASSY KIGALI PRIORITY 1187
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY 2305
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 000965 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/20/2018
TAGS: PREL EAID AO FR
SUBJECT: FRANCE/ANGOLA: MAY 23 SARKOZY TRIP A STEP IN
IMPROVING RELATIONS

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, 1.4 b/d)
.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 000965

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/20/2018
TAGS: PREL EAID AO FR
SUBJECT: FRANCE/ANGOLA: MAY 23 SARKOZY TRIP A STEP IN
IMPROVING RELATIONS

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, 1.4 b/d)
.


1. (C) SUMMARY: French officials said that President
Sarkozy's May 23 trip to Angola was intended as a further
step in improving relations and in moving the relationship
beyond the Falcone Affair and other legacies of the past.
The French hope to establish new assistance programs in
Angola that could serve as models for future programs in
other developing countries. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) MFA Angola desk officer Carole Blestel and
Presidential AF-advisor Romain Serman provided separate
briefings on May 19 on President Sarkozy's May 23 visit to
Angola. They said that the visit was a logical next step
both sides had taken to improve relations since Presidents
Sarkozy and Dos Santos met at the UNGA in New York in 2007.
With the arrival of Sarkozy in office in May 2007, both sides
looked at the present as an opportunity to move political
relations out of the deep-freeze engendered by the Falcone
Affairs (a still murky arms- and influence-peddling scandal
dating to the Mitterrand and Chirac presidencies).


3. (C) In his usual frenetic style, Sarkozy will fly to
Angola during the night of May 22, arriving the morning of
the 23rd in Luanda for what the Angolans have labeled an
"official state visit." Sarkozy will meet with Dos Santos,
and then will be guest of honor at a luncheon hosted by the
Angolan president. Sarkozy will meet with members of the
French community in Angola ("mostly oil executives and their
families," Blestel noted) and return to France the same day.


4. (C) Blestel and Serman said that the visit should lead
to further steps to reactivate the political side of the
relationship. They said that one of the Falcone Affair
trials (perhaps the most noteworthy of all the trials) would
begin in France in September 2008 and last possibly until
February. The case involved some 42 defendants, including
former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Jean-Christophe
Mitterrand (a son of the former President and himself a
former Presidential AF-advisor),Jacques Attali, and other
well-known figures. Serman stressed that while some
information embarrassing to Angola might emerge from the
trial, the inquiry and scandal were largely French-centric,

with most of the defendants accused of violating French law.
The case was not directed against Angola itself and never had
been. Serman remarked that the Angolans had apparently come
to a good understanding of the case because they agreed to
Sarkozy's visit at this time even though it would have been
easier to defer a visit until after the conclusion of the
trial. Inviting Sarkozy now also showed that the Angolans
placed confidence in him.


5. (C) Serman said that Sarkozy well understood the
opportunities for revamping France's relations with a number
of countries when he came to power in 2007. The arrival of a
new leader often provided a chance to houseclean. In
Sarkozy's case, he had sought to improve relations with three
countries whose poor relations with France predated the
Sarkozy era. These were Angola (Falcone problem),Djibouti
(the Borrel case),and Rwanda (the 1994 genocide and the 2006
Bruguiere Report). Serman said that Sarkozy had made
progress on Angola and Djibouti. Rwanda was a different and
special case, although even there, Serman said, Sarkozy had
at least opened the window of dialogue a slight bit. The
trip to Angola would hopefully signal a final end to the
Falcone era and open the way towards better future relations.


6. (C) Serman said that the GOF had in mind a number of new
ideas for channeling aid to Angola. He described a program
whereby Angola could help select projects and co-finance them
-- "It will no longer be just us coming in with our money
telling them what to do," Serman said. Moreover, the French
wanted to engage private businesses operating in Angola to
participate. Serman said that oil company Total had agreed
to help finance a number of school construction projects, and
that Total and other French companies were considering ways
that they could help partner future France-Angola development
projects.


7. (C) Serman said that the development model he described
-- co-selection and co-financing of projects with as much
private sector buy-in as possible -- was something the French
hoped to launch eventually in Angola and then in other
aid-receiving countries in Africa and elsewhere. He said
France wanted to get away from the old model of simply
showing up with money and telling locals how it would be
spent. The partnership would be more productive and would

PARIS 00000965 002 OF 002


help with the transfer of knowledge and technique as well.
"This will clearly be something the Chinese can't and won't
offer to Africans in the same way we will," Serman said with
pride. He indicated that the French concept was in part
designed to counter Chinese activities in Africa by making
more appealing arrangements for recipients than they had been
receiving from the Chinese.


8. (C) Blestel and Serman confirmed that Angola would be
the only country Sarkozy would visit on this trip. He had
planned to go to Angola in February, when he visited South
Africa, but could not because of the crisis in Chad that
month and related problems.



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

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