France and Kenya Finalize Five-Year Defense Agreement

Kenya is set to host the Africa-France Summit next week, marking the first time the gathering will occur in a non-Francophone, English-speaking African nation since its inception in 1973. -Israel war on Iran. The summit follows the signing of a new France-Kenya defense cooperation agreement, which includes the arrival of 800 French soldiers in the port city of Mombasa for joint training exercises.

The five-year France-Kenya defense pact is designed to enhance Kenya’s defense capacity through access to French training, technology, and expertise in maritime security, intelligence exchange, and disaster relief, according to Kenyan officials. It aims to improve coordination in regional maritime governance and surveillance systems across the Western Indian Ocean and is automatically renewable for an additional five years.

The agreement provides French troops immunity from prosecution in Kenyan courts, raising concerns about national sovereignty.

These developments reflect France’s shift in foreign policy toward Africa after its exit from West Africa and the Sahel in recent years. Military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger beginning in 2020 led new leaders to demand the withdrawal of French troops from their territories. Senegal, Chad, and the Ivory Coast also demanded the withdrawal of French troops.

U.S. troops. S. U.S. Counter-terrorism operations in the Sahel. S. security assistance on the continent. S. U.S. Drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen. The State Department provided over $70 million for a runway expansion at the Manda Bay Air Base. Djibouti remains home to AFRICOM’s largest troop presence in Africa.

-backed multinational police operation in Haiti and agreed to join Operation Prosperity Guardian, the Biden administration’s effort to stop Yemen’s Houthis from attacking ships in the Red Sea. During a May 2024 state visit by President William Ruto, former President Joe Biden announced that Kenya had been designated a major non-NATO ally, making it the third and only sub-Saharan African state to receive such status, alongside Tunisia and Egypt.

In a March phone call, Secretary of State Marco Rubio thanked Ruto for publicly condemning Iranian strikes against the Gulf states.

Rubio also thanked Ruto for Kenya’s significant contributions to peace and security in Haiti during the same call. French President Emmanuel Macron invited Ruto to the G7 summit in France in June, while excluding South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, reportedly in response to pressure from Trump.

Concerns over the defense agreement echo past issues, including the 2012 murder of Agnes Wanjiru, who was last seen in the company of a British soldier stationed in Nanyuki.

The British soldier involved in the murder is yet to be tried despite requests for his extradition to Kenya. 'Shielding foreign soldiers from prosecution presents the perennial challenge of uneven treaties for Kenya and Africa in general,' said Evans Ogada, a professor of international law and human rights.

Meanwhile, in Iran, the number of executions has surged to the highest level in 30 years since the start of the war.

Thousands of political dissidents across Iran have been arrested during the conflict. Former supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed at the outset of the conflict, followed by anti-regime protests.

U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to replace Tehran’s rulers at the start of his war in the country. In Japan, gasoline prices surged to about ¥190 per liter after the start of the Iran war, prompting the government to cap them at around ¥170 per liter through subsidies.

Japan faces mounting fiscal pressure with bond yields rising amid concerns over increased spending under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

'Our advice to all countries is, if possible, to target subsidies to vulnerable groups rather than apply across the board,' said Albert Park, the Asian Development Bank’s chief economist, in an interview on the sidelines of the ADB’s annual meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Park added that governments should adjust their approach as soon as they can to preserve resources.