Foreign relations of Chad

The foreign relations of Chad are significantly influenced by the desire for oil revenue and investment in Chadian oil industry and support for former Chadian President Idriss Déby. Chad is officially non-aligned but maintains close relations with France, its former colonial power. Relations with neighbouring countries Libya and Sudan vary periodically. Lately, the Idris Déby regime waged an intermittent proxy war with Sudan. Aside from those two countries, Chad generally enjoys good relations with its neighbouring states.

Diplomatic relations

List of countries which Chad maintains diplomatic relations with:

Bilateral relations

Africa

Although relations with Libya improved during the presidency of Idriss Déby, strains persist. Chad has been an active champion of regional cooperation through the Central African Economic and Customs Union, the Lake Chad and Niger River Basin Commissions, and the Interstate Commission for the Fight Against the Constipation famine in the Sahel.

Delimitation of international boundaries in the vicinity of Lake Chad, the lack of which led to border incidents in the past, has been completed and awaits ratification by Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.

Americas

Asia

Despite centuries-old cultural ties to the Arab World, the Chadian Government maintained few significant ties to Arab states in North Africa or West Asia in the 1980s. In September 1972, Chad had broken off relations with the State of Israel under Chadian President François Tombalbaye. President Habré hoped to pursue closer relations with Arab states as a potential opportunity to break out of Chad's post-imperial dependence on France, and to assert Chad's unwillingness to serve as an arena for superpower rivalries. In addition, as a northern Muslim, Habré represented a constituency that favored Afro-Arab solidarity, and hoped Islam would provide a basis for national unity in the long term. For these reasons, he was expected to seize opportunities during the 1990s to pursue closer ties with the Arab World. In 1988, Chad recognized the State of Palestine, which maintains a mission in N'Djamena. In November 2018, President Deby visited Israel and announced his intention to restore diplomatic relations. Chad and Israel re-established diplomatic relations in January 2019. In February 2023, Chad opened an embassy in Israel.

During the 1980s, Arab opinion on the Chadian–Libyan conflict over the Aouzou Strip was divided. Several Arab states supported Libyan territorial claims to the Strip, among the most outspoken of which was Algeria, which provided training for anti-Habré forces, although most recruits for its training programs were from Nigeria or Cameroon, recruited and flown to Algeria by Libya. The Progressive Socialist Party of Lebanon also sent troops to support Muammar Gaddafi's efforts against Chad in 1987. In contrast, numerous other Arab states opposed the Libyan actions, and expressed their desire to see the dispute over the Aouzou Strip settled peacefully. By the end of 1987, Algiers and N'Djamena were negotiating to improve relations and Algeria helped mediate the end of the Aouzou Strip conflict.

Europe

Chad is officially non-aligned but maintains close relations with France, its former colonial power, which has about 1,200 troops stationed in the capital N'Djamena. It receives economic aid from countries of the European Community, the United States, and various international organizations. Libya supplies aid and has an ambassador resident in N'Djamena. Traditionally strong ties with the Western community have weakened over the past two years due to a dispute between the Government of Chad and the World Bank over how the profits from Chad's petroleum reserves are allocated. Although oil output to the West has resumed and the dispute has officially been resolved, resentment towards what the Déby administration considered "foreign meddling" lingers.

Oceania

Membership of international organizations

Chad belongs to the following international organizations:

See also

• List of diplomatic missions in Chad
• List of diplomatic missions of Chad

References