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Ethical Foreign Policy?
Britain's PM Gordon Brown says he will not attend the European-African Summit in Portugal in December if Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe will be there.
Along with the enaction of the EU Constitution, Portugal sees the summit as the centrepiece of its six-month Presidency of the EU. A previous gathering planned for 2004 collapsed when African leaders refused to attend following European objections to Mugabe's presence.
If anything, Zimbabwe is in an even worse state today and Mugabe's grip on the benighted nation shows no sign of lessening. One would have thought that the collapse in life expectancy, the continued oppression of opponents and minorities in the past three years would have led African Union leaders to rethink their support for Mugabe's regime. Unfortunately not: leaders of African states said last month that they would not attend Portugal's summit if Mugabe was not invited.
There are reports that EU leaders are hoping for a "face saving" solution and that Mr Mugabe, while invited, will send a lackey in his place, thus allowing the summit to go ahead. Gordon Brown might be able to square his disgust at the invitation to Mugabe with the President's absence from the talks.
However, the old bastard might not be able to miss another opportunity to irritate Zimbabwe's old colonial power (and embarrass principled EU leaders) by showing up to the summit.
Brown may feel he "owes" Portugal thanks to the Portuguese government's support for London's position on the Moscow-UK diplomatic spat. Portugal is reported to have wanted to issue a joint EU statement strongly supportive of the UK position directly after Britain expelled four Russian diplomats. Other EU national governments wanted a softer line, with Germany even apparently keen to blame Britain for its haste in the crisis. Perhaps Brown's line has changed from opposing the Summit to just staying out of it in response.
The Mugabe issue also presents a test for France's new Africa policy. France's new leader Nicolas Sarkozy is boasting an "ethical foreign policy" of his own, particularly in Africa and has appointed Doctors without Borders founder Bernard Kouchner to the post of foreign minister. Kouchner is a strong critic of previous French activity in Africa: It is difficult to imagine him, or Mr Sarkozy, entertaining Mugabe to tea in the Elysee Palace as Jacques Chirac did. In the build-up to the last summit, Chirac made his support for Mugabe's presence there and at other EU events clear. The sight of Mugabe's wife shopping for luxury goods in Paris as life expectancy for Zimbabwean women dwindled to 30 did not appear to trouble the former French President.
