France's erratic diplomacy towards Azerbaijan
Hysteria and powerlessness

INTERVIEWS  24 May 2024 - 15:05

The campaign launched by France against Azerbaijan, full of lies, bile and stupidity, which mixed everything possible: from the recall and return of the ambassador to accusations of undermining France's interests in New Caledonia, certainly causes only a chuckle. It is appropriate to label such moves by Paris as inadequate.

What does Paris seek by such toxic policies? Caliber.Az correspondent asked foreign political analysts to respond to the question.

Thus, according to Igor Ignatchenko, a candidate of historical science, Russian francologist, and associate professor at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, France's actions stem from a number of components. Not least because Macron has upcoming elections to the European Parliament.

"At the moment, Macron is far behind the National Front of Marine Le Pen, and he, of course, needs to somehow minimize the risks of losing, because if Macron's party loses the European Parliament elections to Marine Le Pen's party, it will affect the internal political balance in France, which will certainly no longer be in Macron's favor. Now he has a very serious percentage of non-acceptance of his policy by the population of France, and it is obvious that now Macron is trying to show himself a tough, strong leader, and his rhetoric in various areas of foreign policy comes from these electoral pre-election strategies," the political scientist noted.

On the other hand, according to Ignatchenko, the problems in French-Azerbaijani relations have not been canceled, moreover, they have existed for a long time, and it can be seen that France is increasingly losing its position as a world power, the status to which it has been accustomed for many years in the days of Charles de Gaulle.

"That is, France is now still living the myth of the Fifth Republic, although the political situation in reality is already quite different. And if earlier France had no competitors in Africa and considered itself a monopolist of almost the whole continent, now both China and Russia are actively ruling the political map of the continent, and France, on the contrary, is losing its influence there. Of course, all this makes the French leadership nervous, shows its powerlessness, and I think France's behavior on the events in New Caledonia, including relations with Azerbaijan, is a form of hysteria. Hysteria caused by the powerlessness of its own capabilities," the pundit underlined.

On the other hand, according to him, it is worth considering the factor of the Interior Minister of France, who has the Olympic Games in Paris on the horizon, and the maintenance of security here clearly leaves much to be desired. And at the Champions League final match in Paris, as could be seen, the French authorities failed to provide security.

"As you know, there was a lot of criticism on this matter from the French. Therefore, I do not exclude that such hysterics of Paris may come from the French Interior Ministry, which should ensure security both in the country and in all territories belonging to it, but clearly fails in this task, in connection with which the foreign diplomacy of Paris is reflexive. And it's not so much Macron, but the entire system of external governance of France, which is in deep crisis," Ignatchenko emphasized.

According to Belarus political scientist, candidate of political sciences Sergey Tomits, France is losing its last levers of influence in different regions, on different continents, but Macron does not learn from the miscalculations and continues to make mistakes.

“France's insolent, brash behavior towards African states did not prompt Paris to analyze its political strategies. It continued in the same vein in the South Caucasus. It is not surprising that France got burned here even more, the political failure turned out to be, perhaps, even more obvious, because it took place not somewhere in distant Africa, but, in fact, very close to the center of Europe. As a result, Paris, which had started its game with a flamboyant and pretentious note, and to which not only Yerevan but also Baku listened with respect at one point, quickly slipped into the status of a pariah in the region.

Paris' defiant and aggressive diplomacy led to Azerbaijan simply sending France to the bench, giving a lesson to all those who planned to profit from the situation in the region. The removal of Paris from the negotiating track in the South Caucasus speaks for itself about how shallow Macron's policy is. For some reason Paris was sure that the strongest player in the South Caucasus - Azerbaijan - would have to tame its will before the former Fifth Republic and accept its game to the detriment of its own interests. And why should it? It is absolutely unclear what calculations Macron was and is now proceeding from.

The devaluation of the policy of a once strong and wise state, which has slipped to the level of spontaneous reactions and toothless intrigues, and has become a thorn in the side of the political map of Europe, that is what France is now," Tomits concluded.

Caliber.Az