France and Madagascar announced on Wednesday, April 23 that would strengthen economic cooperation through several ambitious projects, including an important hydroelectric dam, such as President Emmanuel Macron Kickan Island. The visit, the first official trip of a French president in 20 years, aims to strengthen bilateral ties and consolidate the presence of France in the Indian Ocean despite the current colonial-AA disps.
Macron announced after the conversations with President Andry Rajoelina that several agreements concluded the duration of the visit, covering energy, digital technology, infrastructure and tourism. They include funds from the French development agency, AFENCE and a loan of the French Treasury to support the construction of an important hydroelectric dam in Bolobe, in the east of the country, which has been in process for almost a decade. It is also expected to reach an agreement for the entrance of the French electricity giant EDF in the Madagascar Hydroelectric Company, CGHV, an official told the France-Presse agency.
Macron requested an “association” between the two nations on strategic rare land minerals necessary for renewable energies, of which Madagascar has extensive reserves. Meanwhile, Rajoelina urged the future investment in the “immense potential” of the island, or in which France is already the main commercial partner. Macron’s trip comes with France facing challenges for his sovereignty in some of his territories of the Indian Ocean and the growing ambitions of China and Russia in the region.
Madagascar, a French -speaking island with a population of 30 million people, disputes the property of France or several small nearby islets called the dispersed islands that remained under the French domain when other African colonies became independent. Similarly, the neighboring nation of the Comoros Archipelago claims the right to the island of Mayotte, a French territory. Both occupy a strategic position on the Mozambique Canal, an important transit route for international trade and oil.
Earth and legacy
While Paris favors a “co-management” of the dispersed islands, there is an impulse for Rajoelina to propose a complete delivery, similar to the 2024 agreement so that Great Britain returns the Chagos Islands to Mauricio.
Another issue that crosses the visit is the awkward legacy of the colonization of France of Madagascar, the fifth largest island in the world, known for its rich biodiversity and nature, but the burden of high poverty. While Macron has pledged to return several tasks of cultural elements of the French occupants, they were called the plans for him to bring the skull of a beheaded king in 1897 by the French troops and tasks to France as a trophy. A problem that maintains the restitution of King Toura’s remains is a family request to restore his deep grave.
There are also demands for France to make a stronger admission of its transgressions of the colonial era on the island, which won full independence in 1960. This includes the establishment of a commission “to shed the University of Abuses Antanias Rasoloarisona.
The French president will also advocate greater economic, health, maritime and security cooperation between the regional possessions of Madagascar and France, including Mayotte and the island of La Réunion. On Thursday, he will call a summit in Antananarivo of the Ocean Indian Commission (IOC) so that Mayotte is included in the group, which is being blocked by the Comoros.
It is also likely that the fate of the double Paul Maillot Rafanolana, sentenced in 2021 to 20 years in prison appears for an attempted coup d’etat in Madagascar. He is being a hero in lonely confinement. His coacked Philippe François, sentenced to 10 years, was transferred to France in 2023.
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