Cameroon-Gabon : Synergy In Forging Common Future

Relations between Cameroon and Gabon came under high-level discussions at the State House yesterday December 6, 2023 with the maiden visit and talks between President Paul Biya and Brigadier General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, President of the Transition and President of the Gabonese Republic. The Unity Palace audience was the hallmark of the Gabonese leader’s 24-hour official visit to Cameroon in his capacity as Head of State.
The grandeur such a visit represented to the two States could be seen and felt at Unity Palace. Even before the scheduled meeting time – 3 pm, the décor was already fully planted with the flags of the two brotherly and neighbouring countries flying high, the guard of honour for the visiting Brigadier General Oligui Nguema in place and the State protocol fully mobilised.
Understandably so as besides being two neighbouring countries and members of two major sub-regional groupings: the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Cameroon and Gabon face the same economic and social development as well as security challenges in the Gulf of Guinea. The need to continue working together to preserve peace and stability and establish a co-prosperity zone by strengthening sub-regional integration is therefore a common wish. Reinvigorating such a multifaceted relationship at the highest States level like Presidents Paul Biya and Brigadier General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema did during the State House discussions in Yaounde yesterday demonstrated their determination to uphold synergy in forging a common and better future for their respective governments, peoples and sub-region.
This explains why the Gabonese strongman looked elated after holding talks with President Paul Biya. Though nothing filtered out of the close to two-hour audience, its duration alone proved how well the leaders are determined to uphold the friendly bond existing between the two countries ever since they established diplomatic relations in 1960. Giving their peoples, united by history and geography, a promising today and tomorrow clearly occupied centred stage. President Paul Biya’s level-headedness certainly enlightened the new Gabonese leader.     
More so as Cameroon remained true to itself in the face of the transitional process in Gabon on August 30, 2023. It is not new to any keen observer that faithful to the irreversible values of democracy, peace and stability, Cameroon strongly condemned the unconstitutional devolution of political power in Libreville on August 30, 2023. While respecting its clearly-stated diplomatic stance of non-interference in the internal affairs of other States, Cameroon however aligned itself with the positions of sub-regional bodies, notably the Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECCAS, within the framework of the Central African Peace and Security Council (COPAX), which design...