The ‘Normalisation’ of Intra-African Diplomatic Activity

Abstract

The first substantive point raised in the 1972 communiqué issued by Premier Chou En-Lai and President Richard Nixon at the conclusion of their meetings in Peking, was that ‘extensive, earnest and frank discussions were held… on the normalisation of relations' between their two countries.1 In other words, after more than 20 years of non-recognition and hostility, it was agreed to accept areas of disagreement, and to move towards co-operation in matters of mutual interest. There was an implicit acknowledgement of the futility of efforts, either to initiate instant revolution, or to prevent basic changes inside the nation-state system, and of the inevitable need to work within the realities of international power.