Djibouti

Visits

To France:

• President of the Republic of Djibouti, Mr Ismaïl Omar Guelleh: official visit to France on 21 December 2011, Élysée Summit in December 2013, official visit to France on 28 February 2017;
• Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Mahamoud Ali Youssouf (March 2016, February 2017).

To Djibouti:

• President of the French Republic (Emmanuel Macron, March 2019)
• President of the French Republic (Nicolas Sarkozy, January 2010)
• Minister of Defence (July 2015).
• Army Chief of Staff (January 2016)
• Minister of State for Relations with Parliament (Jean-Marie Le Guen, October 2016)

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

In July 2013, the Interministerial Committee for International Cooperation and Development (CICID) confirmed Djibouti’s addition to the French list of cooperation priority countries. Cooperation is very dynamic:

• cultural cooperation takes place in close partnership with the Institut Français of Djibouti, which is an important part of our linguistic cooperation in Djibouti;
• French scientific cooperation relies primarily on the Centre for Scientific Studies and Research in Djibouti (CERD) to encourage various fields of research;
• Academic scientific cooperation has increased (launch of the promotion of French higher education, inauguration of Campus France space, the launch of the Études en France procedure and planned scientific visits for Djiboutians with PhDs and preparing PhDs);
• cooperation in the area of governance has been restarted by increasing the number of training scholarships – that are all co-financed – to strengthen Djiboutian administrations.

Military Cooperation

The Defence cooperation treaty between France and Djibouti was signed in Paris on 21 December 2011. It entered into force on 1 May 2014. By that Treaty and its security clause, France reaffirmed its commitment to the independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Djibouti. The Treaty sets out the operational facilities granted to stationed French forces, which make up our largest military base abroad with some 1,450 troops.