From Nairobi to Addis Abeba, a New Chapter in France-Africa Relations

From Nairobi to Addis Abeba, a New Chapter in France-Africa Relations

May 16 , 2026. By Alexis Lamek ( Alexis Lamek is the ambassador of France in Ethiopia and to the African Union (AU). )

The Africa Forward Summit held in Nairobi last week was characterised by an action-oriented framework that sought to consolidate the ties that have been evolving since the 2021 reflection in Montpellier. The transition from the Africa-France Summit of 2021 to last week’s Summit marks a shift from reflection to concrete commitments. With 23 billion euros in announced investments, new initiatives in energy, agriculture, AI, health, culture and sport, and a subsequent visit by President Emmanuel Macron to Addis Abeba, the sequence reflected a relationship increasingly defined by trust, reciprocity, and forward-looking partnerships.

As France and Kenya co-hosted a summit this week, one conviction emerged. It is necessary to redefine relations between France and Africa, which are essential for jointly addressing the challenges of the 21st Century.

This renewed partnership, which has been underway for several years, is based on the shared ambition to establish balanced and mutually beneficial cooperation. The Africa-France Summit, held in Montpellier in 2021, launched this discussion by giving a voice to young people and representatives of civil society and African diasporas. It was necessary to build on this momentum during the “Africa Forward Summit,” held in Nairobi from May 11 to 12, 2026, with the theme “Partnerships between Africa and France for Innovation & Growth.”

The decision to hold an Africa-France Summit in Kenya, a non-French-speaking country, illustrates this spirit of openness and the broadening of relations between France and the entire continent. It also reflected a commitment to moving from dialogue to action.

The Summit also served as an opportunity to call for investment in new areas of cooperation, particularly in heritage, culture, sports, health, and digital innovation, to forge more human and direct partnerships, especially between our youth and our diasporas. In this spirit, the announcement of a permanent site for the Maison des Mondes Africains in Paris, support for African cinema and training, as well as the adoption of the framework law on the restitution of cultural property, reflected the same ambition of engaging with history while building new forms of cooperation for the future.

Strengthening our ties should also rely on the private sector, which creates opportunities and drives growth. That is why President Emmanuel Macron and President William Ruto wanted to give this meeting a strong economic focus, beginning with a business forum. The launch of the Africa-France Impact Coalition, which brings together more than 40 leading African and French business leaders, reflects this ambition. These companies represent 100 billion euros in revenue, 600,000 jobs in Africa, and new investment announcements totalling 23 billion euros on the continent.

Those investments from African and French stakeholders will cover strategic sectors such as the energy transition, digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI), the blue economy, agriculture, health, and industry. The Africa Forward Summit also offered an opportunity to advance concrete priorities, from energy transition and sustainable agriculture to AI, the blue economy and health. Initiatives announced in Nairobi included FASA and FARM+ for agricultural financing, the Digital Africa Seed Fund, the Africa Forward AI Clusters, Konnect Africa for rural connectivity, and AIM2030 for local medical production in Africa, including in Ethiopia.

At a time when international law and multilateralism are being called into question, France and Africa share a common agenda on global issues and a shared commitment to effective multilateralism. The Nairobi Declaration on Peace & Security in Africa reaffirmed the need for more representative international governance, notably through reform of the United Nations Security Council, as well as predictable and sustainable funding for peace operations in Africa through the operationalisation of resolution 2719 of the UN Security Council.

Those key issues were also discussed on May 13 in Addis Abeba during the trilateral meeting between the Secretary General of the United Nations, the President of the Commission of the African Union (AU) and President Macron, who announced an international conference in Paris during the last quarter of 2026 to mobilise additional financing for the African Union Peace Fund, which has already mobilised 400 million euros, towards a target of one billion euros.

The visit to Ethiopia also gave a concrete bilateral dimension to the priorities discussed in Nairobi.

The French Minister for Europe & Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, and the Minister of Finance, Ahmed Shide, signed an intergovernmental agreement for a 54.6 million euros concessional loan from the French Treasury to support the digitalisation and modernisation of Ethiopia’s electricity transmission network. Implemented by General Electric Vernova France and RTE International, in cooperation with Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), the project forms part of the RISED program under the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy.

This is the meaning of the sequence from Nairobi to Addis Abeba. It connects economic partnership, cultural dialogue, African-led peace efforts, reform of global governance and concrete bilateral cooperation. Beyond the projects and declarations, this sequence reflects a shared ambition to build a relationship grounded in trust, reciprocity and shared responsibility.

Africa and France have considerable assets, such as dynamic youth, abundant creativity and a common interest in finding solutions to global challenges. By setting them in motion together, we can shape a renewed partnership, looking to the future, capable of meeting the expectations of our societies and contributing to a more balanced, more united and more sustainable world.

PUBLISHED ON May 16,2026 [ VOL 27 , NO 1359]