Lavrov Visits Chad to Strengthen Russia-Africa Ties

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Chad, the last leg of a tour of African nations marked by strong anti-Western sentiment and the promise of greater military backing against jihadists.

The veteran diplomat has offered to strengthen economic, trade and above all military cooperation with Guinea, Congo and Burkina Faso, his first stops.

The Kremlin has seen relations with the West plummet since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has doubled down on efforts to boost its influence in Africa, replacing western powers, above all France.

But officially for now, N'Djamena is the last hold-out against the Russian influx.

Lavrov held talks with Chad's General Mahamat Idriss Deby who has just been elected president after three years at the head of a military junta.

Deby paid a visit to Moscow in January, raising questions about his plans to broaden his international allies.

"Our friendship with Chad will not influence its relations with France," Lavrov said in N'Djamena.

"It's not peace that the Westerners want to preserve," in Ukraine, Lavrov told journalists, but "the following principles: you have to choose between supporting Russia or supporting" Ukraine.

Chad is one of the last pieces Moscow is trying to put together in the Sahel region, which not long ago was France's sphere of influence.

France has seen its troops dismissed from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso by their military regimes since 2022.

Paris still deploys about 1,000 soldiers in Chad, and says it intends to stay there, if in reduced numbers.

Rumors of armed Russians working alongside Chadian soldiers, notably in the south, are rife on social media.

Last July, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited African leaders to a summit in Saint Petersburg where he said they agreed to promote a multipolar world order and to fight neo-colonialism.