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Elnur Enveroglu

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France's non-participation in the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference, COP29, in Baku, has become a subject of discussion among a wide audience. Instead of showing its biased position towards Azerbaijan by not coming to Baku, France has further tarnished its image.

Interestingly, today, French President Emmanuel Macron decided to head to Brazil, southwest America and join the G20 summit instead of COP29.

Everyone knows that the UNCCC was first signed and agreed upon in the French capital, Paris, on the basis of a document with the joint consent of 196 countries. But what is surprising is France's disregard for that document and its refusal to attend the international event in Baku, where the most painful problems of our planet are being discussed. So, what response does Macron intend to give to 196 countries to evade this great commitment?

As for the G20, it serves as a platform for Macron to wash his sins in the eyes of the world.

For the research, we spoke with political expert Peter Tase, who will now participate in the G20, and learned his thoughts on the issue.

Tase said in a comment to Azernews that the French leader's relations with the South American countries are not good. He also said that he is sceptical that there will be warm relations from now on.

“It's hardly surprising, that Macron will be visiting South America to mend economic ties with Brazil and please Paraguay and other Mercosur member nations.

Macron missed a genuine opportunity to start a new chapter of real cooperation in environmental protection and engineering by not participating in COP 29 Baku. It is geopolitically myopic and counterproductive for France to advocate Armenian thugs and abandon the COP29 platform in Azerbaijan. Another highlight of Macron in the G20 Summit will be bidding farewell to Joe Biden, America’s least internationally travelled president in many decades,” he said.

The French President will attend G20 in hopes that Macron will sign important bilateral commercial deals with Brazil’s highly experienced Lula da Silva, and connect with regional leaders of the MERCOSUR trade bloc, while his fellow countrymen are actively protesting against the EU-MERCOSUR trade deal that has been going on for over 20 years and has no bright future whatsoever. Macron has repeatedly shown that his diplomatic actions, meetings, and public diplomacy initiatives are no more than empty rhetoric and therefore Paris lost face on multiple occasions.

By touching on some historical facts, the Latin American expert underlined Macron’s ignoring South America for the first time since November 2018, when he visited Mauricio Macri, Argentina’s incumbent president. This weekend, France’s feckless president will meet with Argentina’s President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires and then head to Brazil to attend the G20 Summit. The French president has decided to attend the G20 Summit to boost his international image internationally, even more so at the present when Paris -as well as the USA - has lost its presence in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tunisia and Algeria.

“Macron’s hypocritical approach can be well illustrated with France's centuries-old heritage stained by blood.

The brutal French involvement in African affairs, from Rwanda to Burkina Faso, has been marked by bloody massacres and torture. This is especially true of Algeria, the largest country in Africa, first conquered by the French nearly 200 years ago. Algeria gained its independence in 1962, after a hard-fought war against France, which is notable for the use of terrorist tactics and torture by French authorities. Due to France’s ruthless colonial rule, Poverty and terrorism are still ever-present in Algerian life,” the expert said.

France’s failure to back EU in restoring relations with MERCOSUR members

We have to emphasize that Von der Leyen has told France’s Barnier that she will consider making an announcement at the summit of Mercosur countries in early December, in Montevideo, potentially stating publicly the Tragic failure of EU and France in not reaching a deal with MERCOSUR members.

Recently the French prime minister warned von der Leyen that France could break into pieces if a deal is signed and urged a delay, the EU is losing a lot of leverage in South America due to France’s cash-strapped foreign service, greed, protectionism policies and racist rhetoric stated by French MPs against closer cooperation with South America continent.

As mentioned by P.Tase, Macron continues to make geopolitical miscalculations that will hurt France in the long run. “He has lost every sense of diplomatic skills and is taking his country in the wrong direction, above all Macron is disrespectful to his predecessors by not attempting COP29 in Baku.”

He added that Macron is trying hard to reconnect and reconcile with small island states, unfortunately, his weak leadership and silence towards denouncing autocratic regimes in Latin America and conducting business deals with other corrupt heads of state in Central Europe, make Macron a hard quince to sell.