Apart from policy papers and researchers' works on the
heightening of Cameroon US relation, it is necessary to measure practical and
symbolic growth as witnessed by ordinary Cameroonians (especially) or even
Americans (passively). This real growth came to the limelight recently when the
US supported Cameroon in the Cameroon-Nigeria Bakassi dispute. Apart from the
explicit fact that the Greentree agreement by which Nigeria finally agreed to
withdraw troops was signed in New York (and not Geneva or Paris) under the
auspices of the UN, the USA, France, Great Britain and Germany, it should be
understood that the US had taken stance for Cameroon in the dispute. American
support, well appreciated by Cameroonian Government was only a part of a series
of strategic steps the US had been taking to affirm friendship with Cameroon.
This chapter presents and assesses instances of this intensification and its
impact in both countries, as well as the CA sub-region.
Relations between states, conducted through the art of
diplomacy, focus on three principal missions; representation, information and
negotiation. When diplomatic relations open between two states, embassies are
established. States conduct their diplomacy through these embassies where
permanent trained diplomats live, but also through bilateral visits. Visits
either come during periods of crisis or when the nature of relations change or
become intensified. Such visitors carry out high-level or summit diplomacy in
political, economic and socio-cultural domains. Representing their entire
governments, state visitors negotiate important treaties, lobby for votes and
press for trade and development contracts. Though the information sent by
embassies are quite critical, those gathered by envoys and heads of states are
more efficient because they are readily treated without going through the
traditional administrative channel. Therefore, the level and number of visits
between two countries is usually a reflection of the state of relations and
perspectives of what these relations will be.
Practically, Cameroon US relations have witnessed a
remarkable increase since 2001, though some changes were already observable
from 1997. After the 1997 presidential elections in Cameroon, American
personalities made several visits to Cameroon beginning with the Assistant
Undersecretary for Central African Affairs who expressed American satisfaction
at Cameroon's policy of opening and national unity. The visit and reception by
Cameroonian president of US Secretary for Transport, Rodney Slater, greatly
covered by the media, on the 11th and 12th of July 1998
already gave the impression that the US was back to Cameroon. It is during this
visit that plans for an aviation agreement were discussed, given since he came
to promote the US Safe-Skies policy in Africa. It is also during this visit
that the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline project was discussed. This American comeback
was further strengthened by the December 1998 visit of a delegation of US
Mayors and executives led by Washington D.C. Mayor, M. Marion Barry. We could
also read from these visits Cameroon's efforts to better its image in the US
through high-level officials and lobby channels.
It is however from 2002 that US visitors to Cameroon bore
geopolitical and geo-strategic undertones. In 2004, invited by the Cameroonian
Government, the United States Association of Former Members of Congress was in
Cameroon as electoral observers for the October 11 Presidential Elections.
Their positive note at the organization of the elections gave a greater
impression about Cameroon to the US, especially after the strained relations
that followed the 1992 elections. Starting in 2003, high-level US officials
have been visiting Cameroon. Among these, we should note Senator Chuck Hagel;
General Charles Wald, Assistant Commander of NATO Allied Forces; General Scott
Gration, US Forces in Europe Command; BENS (Business Executives for National
Security) Chair and CEO, General Charles G. Boyd; Admiral Michael Mullen of the
US Navy, etc. It is also worth noting that President Biya granted audience in
May 2004 to General Garlton W. Fulford, who chairs the Center for Strategic
Studies on Africa in Washington, a center that operates as a think tank for US
policy towards Africa. All these personalities focused on security issues and
the strategic role Cameroon would play in an unstable but rich region.
As from 2005, this intensification of relations has been marked
by officials directly in charge of foreign relations. In May 2005, Dr Cindy
Courville, Special Assistant to the President at the National Security Council
in charge of Africa, paid a historic visit to Cameroon. That was the first
time a National Security Council official of that level was visiting Cameroon,
and the sub-region. Received at the helm of the state, Dr Cindy explained that
what happens in Cameroon is linked to the security of the American people. One
year later, (February 2006), her colleague of the State Department was in
Cameroon on the one hand to meet the president of the Republic and on the other
hand to inaugurate the new US embassy in Yaoundé. We should not that Mr.
Kansteiner's visit of African capitals in 2001 did not include Cameroon, but
Dr. Jendayi Frazer's visit in 2006 included Yaoundé. It is because of
the imperatives of the post 9/11 grand strategy that Cameroon has received
increased attention from US policy-makers.
On the part of Cameroon, apart from UN General Assembly
meetings in New York where President Biya meets US personalities in corridor
diplomacy, it is the March 2003 visit to the White House that demonstrated the
place of Cameroon in US policy towards Central Africa. At the invitation of
President Bush, Paul Biya went on a state visit after close to 15 years of
silence. During this visit, which took place at the wake of the launching of
the Iraq war, President Bush celebrated Cameroon as a stable and well governed
country, revealing the American vision of Cameroon in efforts to control the
Gulf of Guinea.
In the same vein, Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni was on an
official visit to the US between the 13th and 16th May,
2005. During this visit, he had a tête-à-têtes with the
Advisor to National Security, M. Steve Hadley and State Department Secretary,
Condoleezza Rice. He also met a cross-section of US businessmen and
politicians. All these meetings focused on security and investment issues.
We should however note that Cameroon has not received some
prominent US officials who have been to Africa. Since 1995, and apart from
Rodney Slater who came to Cameroon in a regional and not really a Cameroonian
perspective, several US visitors to Africa have not been to Cameroon. Among
these are former President Clinton and other members of his government who
visited Africa several times without coming to Cameroon. His collaborators such
as Vice-President Albert Gore; the two Secretaries of State, Madeleine Albright
and Warren Christopher; Commerce Secretary, Ronald Brown; National Security
Advisor, Anthony Lake; as well as First Lady and now Senator Hillary Rodham
Clinton. In the same way, President Bush and Secretaries of State under his
administration, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powel have not been to Cameroon
though they have several times been to Africa. We could however explain this
absence (especially as from 2001 with President Bush) by a weakness in
Cameroonian diplomacy, which has been ineffective in using the highest
diplomatic channel to woo these personalities to Cameroon. The importance of
high-level visits is should be understood as a way of wooing investors and
providing international attention one's country, a thing Cameroonian
authorities ought to do.
