Edinburgh, Libreville and Hanoi

Abstract

Three summit meetings took place in four weeks towards the end of 1997—the Commonwealth, the ACP, and La Francophonie, If the ACP is apprehensive at the forthcoming talks on replacement of the Lomé Convention, the Commonwealth and La Francophonie have taken on a new lease of life. Lomé is a unique trade‐and‐aid agreement governing relations between the members of the European Union and their former colonies in the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions. The Libreville summit of ACP nations in the autumn of 1997 was stimulated by concerns that the convention was being undermined by the arrival of the World Trade Organization and diminished access to European markets. Talks over its future are to be completed in the year 2000 with two possible outcomes—a revived partnership with the ACP countries with Africa the priority zone for aid, or a development policy which does not favour any specific region. Despite the desire in Brussels to see the post‐colonial era buried, the strengths of the Commonwealth and La Francophonie, however contrasting in style and content, may well ensure its continuation.