Tony Blair erupted with fury at French president Jacques Chirac for attempting to sabotage British efforts to isolate Zimbabwe's dictatorial leader Robert Mugabe, newly released government files reveal. The former prime minister's anger was triggered when he discovered Chirac was demanding that Mugabe be allowed to attend a planned EU-Africa summit in 2003.
"But this is the opposite of what he said to me," Blair scrawled in a handwritten note after Downing Street officials informed him of Chirac's position. The French president had argued that South African president Thabo Mbeki would boycott the gathering unless Mugabe received an invitation.
Blair's fierce response to French betrayal
Blair accused France of deliberately undermining Britain's standing in Africa, writing that Chirac was "using it to damage the UK's standing in Africa in the belief (mistaken) that Mugabe retains credibility". The prime minister insisted that "we should be seen to do all we can to protest" against the French position.
The diplomatic row unfolded as Zimbabwe descended into violence and economic collapse following Mugabe's brutal campaign to seize land from the country's remaining white farmers. Blair's Labour government had positioned itself at the forefront of international pressure on Mugabe to end the chaos and restore democratic governance.
Mugabe's colonial grievances fuel tensions
Britain's intervention deeply angered Mugabe, who argued that as the former colonial power, the UK should be paying reparations to Zimbabwe rather than criticising his regime. As the crisis deepened, Blair noted they needed to be "pretty fierce on Mugabe" to achieve any meaningful progress.
However, Nelson Mandela warned Blair that Mugabe deserved respect as a veteran liberation leader. "Despite the recent turmoil in Zimbabwe we must not forget that President Mugabe is a statesman who has made a major contribution not only to Zimbabwe's independence but to the liberation of southern Africa," the former South African president wrote to Blair.
Personal animosity hampers diplomatic efforts
Anglo-French cooperation on African issues was further complicated by deep personal hostility between Chirac and Britain's international development secretary Clare Short. Sir John Holmes, Britain's ambassador to Paris, reported that Chirac had complained bitterly about Short being "viscerally anti-French and 'insupportable'".
The French president contrasted Short's attitude with the productive working relationships enjoyed by French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine with British counterparts Jack Straw and Robin Cook. "Vedrine and Cook had worked well together, and Vedrine and Straw were continuing in the same vein. But Ms Short was impossible," Holmes reported Chirac as saying.
When Holmes assured Chirac that Short's views had been "transformed" following a recent regional trip by Vedrine, the French president replied "God be praised". The exchange highlighted how personal relationships between key ministers could significantly impact international diplomatic efforts on critical issues like the Zimbabwe crisis.
(PA/London) Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
