The Élysée postpones a trip by Emmanuel Macron to Nigeria and Senegal planned for the end of October

French President Emmanuel Macron postponed a trip to Nigeria and Senegal planned for October 28 to 31, which was not aimed at securing oil and gas deliveries, unlike the highly criticized one made in the Gulf from Monday to Wednesday, his entourage announced on Friday.

“Maintaining the tour in the Middle East was fully assumed by the President of the Republic because it aimed to obtain rapid results to guarantee the security of our energy supplies (...) It was a strategic issue in the context of the global energy crisis”, which allowed “concrete results”, it was underlined.

“To the extent that the travel project in West Africa responded to a diplomatic and cooperation agenda without a direct link to the emergency linked to strategic supplies, he chose to postpone it to a later date” and “informed his partners,” the same source added.

Geopolitics shakes up the agenda

This trip had not been officially announced but was actively being prepared behind the scenes. The head of state himself announced in the spring that he would go to West Africa in the fall. At the time, he mentioned Senegal and Ivory Coast but Nigeria was ultimately chosen as the second country. “This postponement in no way calls into question our desire to continue to develop our partnerships with African countries,” said those around the Head of State.

The continuation of the tour in the Middle East, the day after a weekend punctuated by violence, breakages and looting throughout France on the sidelines of demonstrations against the “high cost of living”, had been strongly criticized even in his own camp. Emmanuel Macron argued that he had secured monthly diesel deliveries of nearly 300,000 tonnes in total to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as well as volumes of liquefied natural gas to Qatar.