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Gabon - Foreign Relations

Since independence, Gabon has followed a nonaligned policy, advocating dialogue in international affairs and recognizing each side of divided countries. In inter-African affairs, Gabon espouses development by evolution rather than revolution and favors regulated free enterprise as the system most likely to promote rapid economic growth.

Gabon played an important leadership role in the stability of Central Africa through involvement in mediation efforts in Chad, the Central African Republic, Angola, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.), and Burundi. In December 1999, through the mediation efforts of President Bongo, a peace accord was signed in the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) between the government and most leaders of an armed rebellion. President Bongo was also involved in the continuing D.R.C. peace process, and played a role in mediating the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire. Gabonese armed forces were also an integral part of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) mission to the Central African Republic.

Gabon is a member of the United Nations (UN) and some of its specialized and related agencies, as well as of the World Bank; the IMF; the African Union (AU); the Central African Customs Union/Central African Economic and Monetary Community (UDEAC/CEMAC); EU/ACP association under the Cotonou Agreement; the Communaute Financiere Africaine (CFA); the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC); the Nonaligned Movement; and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS/CEEAC), among others. In 1995, Gabon withdrew from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Gabon was elected to a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for January 2010 through December 2011 and held the rotating presidency in March 2010.

On June 8, 2009, President Omar Bongo died of cardiac arrest at a Spanish hospital in Barcelona, ushering in a new era in Gabonese politics. Omar Bongo's most lasting achievement was his role as a regional peacemaker and power broker. With seniority among fellow African leaders and significant financial resources, Bongo brought tenacity, credibility and an undeniable gift for deal-making to dozens of efforts to end war and civil conflict. In matters as diverse as Angola's civil war, Cote d'Ivoire's various coups and electoral crises in the last decade, and efforts to end low-level conflict and forge a new political order in the Central African Republic (CAR), Bongo was a consistent, respected advocate of compromise and peace. Never an ideologue, Bongo managed to play these roles despite well-known deviations from African political orthodoxy: facilitating arms transfers to UNITA rebels in Angola, trading with South Africa throughout the era of apartheid, and forging an unusually close relationship with Morocco despite AU distress over Western Sahara.

Privately dismissive of several fellow heads of state, and particularly appalled by the pretensions of Libya's Muamar Qadhafi, Bongo nevertheless wields his seniority with a light touch. Aides spoke of Bongo's disarming humility, careful respect for the egos and sensitivities of fellow leaders, and readiness to cede the limelight -- all the while privately prodding even intractable foes toward negotiation and compromise.

The election of Gabonese Foreign Minister Jean Ping to the chairmanship of the African Union in 2008, with two-thirds of the vote on the first ballot, was unquestionably a tribute to Ping's extraordinary acumen. It was also a result of Bongo's effective lobbying and the political capital he accumulated over four decades in power.