By Michel Cousins.
Tripoli, April 4: Building on the foundations of its ground-breaking support for the February 17 Revolution last year, France . . .[restrict]is looking to create something of a special relationship with Libya.
It is a development that Libya appears keen to encourage.
It is remarkable a transformation. Historically, France had little interest in Libya, even when the administration of the Fezzan was handed to it after World War II prior to the country’s independence at the end of 1951. But then in those days, there was little to attract the French: oil had not yet been found.
From 1951 until Qaddafi seized power in 1969, France’s influence in Libya remained minimal compared to that of the UK, the US or even Italy. The situation remained much the same for the next 30 years, exacerbated by clashes of interests in francophone sub-Saharan Africa as Qaddafi developed his expensive and quirky African dreams.
In fact, France’s serious interest in Libya — at least its economic interests — slightly predates last year’s revolution. With the economic opening up of Libya from around 2005 onwards, foreign companies homed in on the country; the French were as keen as everyone else. According to International Review of Business Research Papers, by the end of 2010 France was the leading foreign investor in Libya, accounting for 18.7 percent of all foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country. They were followed by Germany at 16 percent and the UK at 12 percent. Countries that might have been expected to have been major investors were way down the list — Italy just 4 percent and China and Turkey, 2.7 percent each.
Special relationships, however, are built as much on political as financial ties, if not more so. France’s pioneering backing for the revolution, not least as the first country to recognize the National Transitional Council and the fact that it was French fighters that first went into action to defend Benghazi from Qaddafi’s forces on March 19, two days after the UN’s No-Fly Zone, has fundamentally changed the nature of the relationship. It has created near perfect conditions in which to build a special relationship.
On the back of it, a number of French business delegations have already been in Libya looking at the needs and the opportunities in reconstructing the country.
Just this week there, Michel Casals, President of the Libyan French Chamber of Commerce has been back in Tripoli (he was last here in Fenruary), accompanying the large group of French companies exhibiting at the current Tripoli International Fair. Nor is it any accident that France is this year the biggest single exhibitor, with over 50 companies present. The French are keen to make a serious commercial impression on Libya.
It is not just businessmen who are coming. A group of six French senators were in Tripoli a fortnight ago to gain first-hand experience of the changes in the country as well as the challenges and the ways France might help Libya rebuild — politically as well as physically.
Their visit happened to come a day after the anniversary of the first attacks by French planes on Qaddafi forces on the outskirts of Benghazi on March 19. Some Libyans reporters thought that there must be a connection. There was not. The trip was in fact part of a regional tour — the senators, all from the Senate Finance Committee, had been to Egypt beforehand and flew off to Tunis. The timing was coincidental. But it was fortuitous. It provided a fertile environment fr the visit.
The fact that they came last month was itself testimony to the deep interest France has for Libya at present. It is presidential election time in France. Like all other political figures in France, the six senators, three from the Right and three from the Left, should have been campaigning at home. But they took time off for Libya and, while they were here, all party divisions were set aside. They were in Tripoli to represent France and see how to help further boost Franco-Libyan ties.
Because the six were politicians rather than lawyers or businessmen, theirs was, by definition, a political evaluation of Libya rather than a legal or commercial assessment. Likewise, because they represented a cross section of French political opinion, their take on the situation certainly reflected a broad French approach to Libya.
Given that, it was interesting to hear what they had to say.
The senator leading the delegation, Philippe Marini, acknowledged that prior to the revolution relations were not, as he put it, “of the first rank”.
This “totally changed on March 19, 2011”. Now it is different. “Never in history, have they reached such a level of importance”.
It was all down to the role France played in helping Libya’s liberation. During the senators’ visit they met with Prime Minister Abdurrahim Al-Kib as well as the planning and labour ministers, members of the NTC, the chairman of the Central Bank and the deputy oil minister. They also met representatives of the business community.
“All the people we met”, said Marini “understood the importance of the role France played a year ago — along with the UK and others. They said it was absolutely critical”.
That view is reflected at all levels in Libya today. It was seen back in September when French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UK Prime Minister paid a one-day visit to the country. Cameron was cheered but Sarkozy was treated like an all-conquering hero. It was seen, too, this week in the comments from Libyan Businessmen Council chief Abdallah Falah at the opening of the French pavilion at the Tripoli International Fair: “No matter how much I thank France, I will not do it justice. If it were not for God then France, there would be no fair and there would be no Benghazi either. . . .We will be a loyal friend to France for its support.”
The senators made it clear that France wants to help the new Libya in every way it can. Libya is, Marini says, “a country where all is to be built”.
He sees one particular political way in which France can help— in Libya’s aims for decentralisation.
“France is unitary state. It has never been a federal state,” he points out. “But it is a decentralised one.” He says that given France’s experience, it may be able to help with the practicalities of decentralisation.
“We can transfer our expertise in managing towns and regions. He points out that it simply is not sensible to try and organise everything from the centre. “The problems of a large city cannot be solved a thousand kilometres away.” Moreover, he says, there have to be local taxes if decentralisation is to work and there has to be some responsibility for local assemblies.
But nothing, he points out can be done until after elections to the constituent assembly in June.
He is extremely confident that, despite the challenges, Libya will succeed. For a start, things were not as bad as the international media were saying. “The reality in Libya is much better than the images we see in the West,” he says.
The other reality he points to is the skills that Libyans have which can help it rebuild. The country has importance resources, human as well as material. “We were very stuck by the professionalism of the people we met,” Marini said at the end of his visit. That included government personal and officials. “Their clear thinking is remarkable”. Al-Kib, Marini noted, had not tried to gild the lily when talking about the difficulties Libya faces.
Part of the problem, as he put it, is that Libyans are “impatient to reap the dividends of democracy”. He hoped the transformation to democracy would lead smoothly and quickly to elections to assembly then to a constitution being drawn up, then to elections to the new parliament and finally the installation of a permanent government.
The senators’ visit, he said, had been very useful in building the new relationship — a relationship that was going to be built on close friendship. “We must create partnerships.”
There would, moreover, be follow-up from it he promised.
That is perhaps not surprising given who was making the promise. Closer Franco-Libyan relations have an evident champion in Marini.
The senator from the Oise department north of Paris may be an expert in French finance — he chairs the Senate’s Finance Committee, which is why he was leading the delegation — but he has developed a keen interest in the Arab world. He is already president of the Senate’s France, Saudi Arabia and Gulf States Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group. But additionally he became president of the Franco-Libyan society in February. He was asked to take on the role by its founder André Laronde, the French historian and archaeologist who has specialized in Libya in the classical period.
The society and the position are about far more than politics. But it will surely be invaluable having someone as politically influential as Marini working to ensure that, rising on the foundations established on February 19, 211, a solid and fruitful relationship is built.
It looks set to be a relationship that is as much economic and social as it is political. [/restrict]
