Русский
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, met with Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul, the Foreign Minister of Chad, on the sidelines of the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
They discussed topical issues of further developing the friendly relations between Russia and Chad with an emphasis on expanding trade, economic, scientific, technologic and humanitarian ties. They also reaffirmed the intention of Moscow and N’Djamena to invigorate their political dialogue and enhance coordination of their efforts in the world arena.
Chad sits at the crossroads of North and Central Africa, and is a landlocked country bordered by Libya to the north, with Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon to the southwest, Nigeria to the southwest (at Lake Chad), and Niger to the west. Chad is a former French colony and has undergone problems with terrorism in its recent past, including Muslim insurgency under the Boko Haram militants. Russia is discussing military and security support, with Chad and several other African states as Russia inherits a region now distrustful of its previous colonial masters.
Chad is a member of the African Union, the Bank of Central African States, the Customs and Economic Union of Central Africa (UDEAC) and the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA).
Chad has a population of 16 million, of which 1.6 million live in the capital and largest city of N’Djamena. With a total area of around 1,284,000 km2, Chad is the fifth-largest country in Africa and the twentieth largest nation by area in the world.
With Chad being landlocked, Russia is looking for opportunities not just in security and military support, but also to look at reviving Chad’s oil industry, with its proven reserves of 1.5 billion barrels. That energy and potential income will be needed to develop Chad’s agricultural industry, which has been decimated by poor management, war, and desertification. Russian fertilizer and grain exports were also discussed.
Chad also has a significant cotton industry although again this will need infrastructural development. Cattle farming and gum arabic production are also significant industries. Mobile phone and internet usage are also well below normal African penetration rates and there are likely to be opportunities in communications infrastructure. However – getting much needed development into the country is highly dependent on maintaining domestic security. Russia’s current foreign trade with Chad is small at about US$3 million. However, both sides are looking how to provide security and stability and ways to improve this.
