France, Russia jostle for influence in Togo

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Togo has maintained cordial ties with France since independence in 1960. It is now also opening up to a Russia keen to expand its influence from the Sahel into the Gulf of Guinea.

So, when France sent its foreign minister to Togo in April -- the first such visit in 24 years -- one of the main aims was to counter Russia's rapprochement with the west African coastal country.

France's position is not helped by the fact that Togo continues to cultivate good relations with regional neighbours Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.

All are former French colonies now ruled by military juntas who have severed ties with Paris and forged closer links with Russia instead.

"The issue for France is not so much a return to Togo as an attempt to stem the ongoing erosion of its regional influence," Togolese political scientist and essayist Madi Djabakate told AFP.

In 2025, Moscow signed an agreement with Lome under which it sends army instructors, ships and military aircraft to Togo, ostensibly to help tackle jihadist attacks in the north.

The deal potentially allows the Russian paramilitary Africa Corps -- the successor to the Wagner mercenary group -- to expand within mineral-rich Togo.

Russia, like France, also has eyes on the strategic port of Lome, the deepest in west Africa.

Moscow's ambassador to Togo and Benin said in March that Russia hoped to use Lome port as a logistics hub to import its goods into Togo and the landlocked countries of the Sahel.

As part of this strategy, it wants to build a railway linking from the port to the Togolese interior and up to the Burkina border, and an oil pipeline following the same route, the ambassador said.

The plans have not gone unnoticed in Paris, which continues to see west Africa as its sphere of influence, nor have Moscow's efforts to secure a foothold in Togo via soft power.

"Russia is clearly expanding its cooperation and presence," an advisor to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP during his visit to Lome on April 23-24.

Russia's soft power overtures include the forthcoming appointment of a resident ambassador, an increase in the number of scholarships on offer, a planned Russian language teaching centre and concerts in Lome by musicians from the Moscow Conservatory.

Russia relies on an effective psychological strategy to win over target countries, commented Djabakate -- "anti-Western rhetoric, defending state sovereignty, rejecting democratic principles and offering rapid security cooperation".

France, by contrast, is counting on its hard economic clout to keep its targets in hand.

For example, Paris is paying for the renovation of a Togolese university hospital equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and launching a centre of excellence in programming and artificial intelligence.

"We're offering something concrete," Barrot's aide said.

As far as the campaign to quash jihadist violence goes, neither side can claim to have the upper hand.

The military juntas in Burkina, Mali and Niger and their Russian allies have failed to prevent Islamic militant groups from expanding in the region.

French troops also failed in that enterprise before they were chased out by the juntas.

In any case, the government of Togo's leader Faure Gnassingbe is seeking to keep both parties sweet.

He sent the speaker of the Togolese parliament to this month's French-African summit in Kenya, which was co-financed by France and used by Paris to boost its presence on the continent after years of strained ties with its former colonies.

And in October, Gnassingbe is due in Moscow for a Russia-Africa summit. 

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