France and Bolivia
Political relations
France and Bolivia maintain friendly relations, strengthened by the first meeting between President Emmanuel Macron and President Luis Arce on 18 July 2023 in Brussels, in the margins of the EU-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Summit. Former President Evo Morales visited France six times and met with President Macron in New York in September 2019 to discuss French aid to Bolivia to fight fires in the Amazon.
We share the same concerns with Bolivia for the defence of multilateralism and the environment. We also conduct active cooperation when it comes to civil security, particularly the fight against forest fires.
Bilateral consultations are held every two years; the latest took place in La Paz in May 2024, at the level of the Americas and Caribbean Deputy Director.
French presence in Bolivia and Bolivian presence in France
- Consulate: French Consulate in La Paz (and four consular agencies located in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Sucre and Tarija)
- French community in Bolivia: 1,121 registered (2024)
- Bolivian community in France: 4,000 (2024)
Visits
France and Bolivia have maintained diplomatic relations since 1831. Two French Presidents have visited Bolivia: General de Gaulle in 1964 and Jacques Chirac in 1997.
President Evo Morales visited France as President-elect in January 2006. He returned for official visits in May 2006, February 2009 and November 2015, and made a working visit in March 2013. Presidents Morales and Hollande met again in New York in September 2013, in 2014 and in June 2015 in the margins of the EU-CELAC Summit in Brussels. Evo Morales took part in the opening of COP21 in Paris on 30 November 2015 and the One Planet Summit on 12 December 2017.
President Morales and Macron spoke in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019.
President Macron met his counterpart, President Luis Arce, for the first time on 18 July 2023 in Brussels, in the margins of the EU-CELAC Summit.
At ministerial level, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Mr Laurent Fabius, met with President Morales in the margins of COP20 in Lima in December 2014, and in Cochabamba, in October 2015. The Bolivian Minister of Foreign Affairs, David Choquehuanca, visited France on several occasions: in January and July 2008, January 2011, October 2012, and November 2013. During these last two visits, he was received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Bolivian Minister of Planning and Development, René Orellana, made a working visit to France in December 2016, and the Minister for Transport, Milton Claros, visited in January 2017. Benjamín Blanco, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Integration, visited France in November 2022 for the first session of high-level economic dialogue, where he spoke with Minister Delegate Olivier Becht. Franklin Molina, Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energies, visited Paris in February 2024.
Bolivia received ministerial-level visits in 2002, 2006 and 2014 from Brigitte Girardin, Minister of State for Cooperation, Development and Francophonie, who travelled for the inaugurations of Presidents Sanchez de Lozada and Morales, and from Benoît Hamon, Minister Delegate for the Social and Inclusive Economy and Consumer Affairs. Jean-Pierre Bel, the President’s Personal Envoy for Latin America and the Caribbean, also visited La Paz from 6 to 8 March 2017 to participate in a number of high-level meetings.
Economic relations
Trade between France and Bolivia remains nominal. The total value of trade varied between €119 million and €187 million between 2015 and 2019, with volatility largely due to the fluctuating cost of commodities. Bilateral trade stood at €89 million at the end of 2023. In 2023, our exports accounted for €37 million, while our imports stood at €52 million.
The geographical isolation of the country also explains our low direct sales, because many French products found in Bolivia are imported and distributed from neighbouring countries (Chile, Peru and Brazil), and are not included in bilateral statistics.
In 2023, Bolivia was our 128th customer globally (15th in Latin America). French exports are made up almost exclusively of manufactured products (chemicals, perfumes and cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, etc.).
Our imports are mainly metal ores, which represent two-thirds of France’s total imports. They also include agricultural and agrifood products.
TotalEnergies is the leading French investor in Bolivia. Thales supplies equipment to enable Bolivia to acquire an integrated air traffic control system. Some 20 French businesses are present in Bolivia.
France and Bolivia launched a high-level economic dialogue in November 2022 when the former Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Integration, Benjamín Blanco, visited France and met with Minister Delegate Olivier Becht. A second session of this dialogue was held in Bolivia in July 2024, where the two countries signed a bilateral roadmap that aims to bolster cooperation when it comes to sustainable mobility, health and strategic resources, particularly regarding the lithium component.
Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation
Cultural cooperation is based on the two French schools in La Paz and Santa Cruz, as well as a vibrant network of four Alliances Françaises in La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Sucre, in addition to a La Paz Alliance Française branch in Oruro and El Alto. Currently 3,000 Bolivian students take French courses in Bolivia’s Alliances Françaises. Through French cooperation, French artists in the fields of performing arts, plastic arts and cinema visit Bolivia, and it focuses its action on events and training. France also supports Bolivian events such as the Festival Internacional de la Cultura in Sucre, and the International Book Fair in Santa Cruz.
A cooperation agreement was signed in February 2024 between the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations (INALCO) and the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and Caribbean (FILAC) and provides for cooperation projects in the higher education, research and culture sectors.
In the scientific area, the Research Institute for Development (IRD) has been working in Bolivia since 1968. Its work focuses mainly on variability and climate change, altitude and aquatic biodiversity, health and the social sciences. A research associate from the French Institute for Andean Studies (IFEA) is also present in the country and works on developing archaeological dig projects.
Bolivia has also joined regional French research programmes such as STIC and MATH AmSud.
France is the 4th most popular country for Bolivian students abroad (465 students came to France in 2019-2020) and Bolvia’s 6th most important scientific partner (over 100 joint publications per year). An agreement on mutual recognition of diplomas was signed in June 2018.
Student mobility is based on some 30 university agreements. A “scientific and technological sovereignty” programme financed by the Bolivian government has enabled some 40 Bolivian students to study in France between 2015 and 2020.
Other cooperation
The Agence Française de Développement has been working in Bolivia since 2015, with €700 million in sovereign loans. It prioritizes projects in the areas of water and sanitation and renewables.
In its emergency aid package that President Macron announced at the G7 Summit in August 2019, France established cooperation with Bolivia to help fight fires ravaging the Amazon. This emergency response, which included private and public funds, deployed a detachment of French civil security military forces from 8 to 26 September 2019. They helped put out 720 hectares of fires. Hours of helicopter intervention were also funded and several tons of firefighting equipment were given to the Bolivian civil security. This cooperation continued with training activities. Another French civil security detachment was deployed to Bolivia in November 2023, at the request of President Macron and in response to a request from the Bolivian authorities to fight a series of fires across the country.
France supported Bolivia in the fight against COVID-19, mobilizing a development assistance fund to boost diagnostic and treatment capacities. In the summer of 2021, equipment to combat COVID-19 was sent to Bolivia, along with vaccine donations via the COVAX Facility.
A cooperation agreement on intercountry adoption was signed with Bolivia in July 2021.
Bolivia is one of the main beneficiaries of EU development assistance in Latin America (not including the Caribbean). It received €281 million for the period 2014-2020 while €104 million in national funds was allocated under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) for the period 2021-2024. The NDICI focuses on the environment, climate change and inclusive economic development, in addition to governance and human rights (including combatting corruption and drug trafficking).
In the area of trade, since 2009 Bolivia has benefited from the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) and since 2014 from GSP+, which develops its exports to the European Union (trade of about €400 million a year).
Updated: 9 August 2024