Within the current period, worldwide relations are sometimes framed as if there have been solely two doable outcomes for States: to dominate, or to be dominated; to vassalize, or to be vassalized.
Nations are supposed to select in favour of this or that hegemon, this or that bloc. The lesson we’re studying from our expertise as Heads of State of two nations whose bilateral relationship has been deepening during the last twenty-five years is sort of totally different.
From our shared views, we are able to very confidently say that we see our relationship as a partnership between equals. Certainly, there are moments in historical past when nations discover themselves pushed by shared pursuits which might be properly understood and acknowledged by all. France and Nigeria discover themselves at such a pivotal second.When we’ve mutual pursuits, we work collectively. It’s in our mutual curiosity to encourage non-public sector funding between our two nations.
It’s in our mutual curiosity to develop thriving inventive and cultural industries that may generate jobs for Nigerian and French younger individuals.It’s in our mutual curiosity to be sure that the Gulf of Guinea is secure for all financial actions.It’s in our mutual curiosity to strengthen our meals programs in order that they’re secure, safe and never over-reliant on imports.
We’re glad that Nigeria and France are trusted companions, to one another and to many nations all around the world. This belief is invaluable. This belief guidelines out constraint or strain.It guidelines out systematic alignment.
It guidelines out over-reliance. It leads us to respect the imaginative and prescient that our two nations have of their respective strategic autonomy.
We outline strategic autonomy as the flexibility for States to pursue their very own pursuits with out over-reliance on one other State, significantly with regard to their nationwide safety and international coverage; to decide on a future for itself with out international interference.
Though the time period is pretty current, the precept of strategic autonomy is deeply rooted within the historical past of France and Nigeria.Additionally it is a precept that’s extensively supported by the residents of each our nations.Right this moment, we wish to reiterate our agency dedication to selling this precept of strategic autonomy, not just for our two nations, but in addition throughout the framework of the strategic imaginative and prescient that we’re placing ahead, as Nigeria, for Africa, and as France, for Europe.We won’t meet the challenges of right now’s world by constructing blocs.We’ll meet these challenges by reforming and renewing international governance, by adapting present frameworks in order that they allow us to work collectively extra successfully, to achieve consensus and to focus sources on fixing the essential challenges that we face.
To attain this, we’d like international governance to be extra inclusive and participatory. Though progress has been made, extra must be performed to make sure that your entire world inhabitants, and significantly the African continent, feels actually represented in all fora.
We’d like this renewed and reformed international governance to guard the achievements of earlier generations such because the physique of worldwide humanitarian regulation that exists right now and ought to be carried out in the identical method, whether or not in Gaza, in Sudan or in Ukraine.
We’d like it to step up our efforts to determine stronger well being programs, schooling for all, sustainable and authorized migration pathways.
We’d like it to strengthen our resilience to local weather change and to higher shield biodiversity past nationwide jurisdictions.
Nigeria and France are proud to reaffirm right now their dedication to work collectively as a way to obtain these aims, and to assist deliver collectively all stakeholders, totally conscious of our shared pursuits and horizons.
– Tinubu and Macron are each Presidents of Nigeria and France
