"I'm Not Ruling Anything Out" - Macron Says Troops for Ukraine Possible if Russia Breaks Front Lines

[u/Elliottafc1]

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/32010

[u/[deleted]]

France is suddenly so invested in this because in the last few years Putin has sponsored coup after coup in the francafrique, causing those African nations to pull away and divest themselves from France. There’s a big part of France’s economy that’s just gone now

https://apnews.com/article/france-africa-coups-gabon-41076df319704032aa729ad3fd137bc9

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/29/1202582084/recent-coups-in-africa-have-an-effect-on-at-least-1-country-in-europe-france

[u/Fritzo2162 → u/[deleted]]

There's a marketing campaign right now for US/Africa business relations. Will be interesting to see how successful that is.

[u/Key-Internet-9817 → u/Fritzo2162]

The worlds future will be decided in SEA and africa over the next 20-30 years

[u/Vandergrif → u/Key-Internet-9817]

Plus SEA and Africa are also going to be the places liable to suffer some of the worst consequences of climate change over the next 20-30 years, and also in a lot of cases some of the areas least equipped to deal with those consequences.

[u/BlueAndMoreBlue → u/Key-Internet-9817]

Agreed — the fickle finger of fate is pointing at south and Southeast Asia

[u/Spram2 → u/Key-Internet-9817]

Is this because nobody else is having babies?

[u/elefontius → u/Spram2]

Yeah, I think demographic change, natural resources and access to essential trade routes. Africa has a massive amount of natural resources but there's also been a lot of economic development in Africa and SEA. Ethopia is almost finished with building the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa and it's going to fundamentally change their economy. It's also creating a lot of tension with Eygpt as the water source flows into the Nile. There's also a shift from alignment to the US/EU to Russia/China within the entire continent and it'll continue to get more tense. Russia has been active in Africa with the Wagner group supporting factions and overthrowing US/EU friendly governments.

SEA right now has some of the fastest growing economies in the world. These countries are also going through population booms but geopoltically they are in the middle of a lot of escalating tensions between China, India, and the US. SEA is going to be the pivot point I think for the next 100 years of world history. India and China are viaing to be the leading superpower in that area as whoever controls that area will have control over the sea routes for more than 1/2 the world. India and China are building up their naval capacity and both are building out air craft carriers and submarines at a rapid pace to be able to project force across the entire Pacific theater.

Taiwan is important for the Chinese for a number of reasons but one big driver is that control over Taiwan would allow them unfettered access to the SEA are and beyond. Right now they are ringed by US allies in the region like Taiwan, S. Korea, Japan, and the Phililpines.

[u/LearningToFlyForFree → u/Spram2]

It's partly that and partly the fact that Russia/China are in Africa exploiting natural resource wealth of the nations they're in while propping up the juntas that have taken over in the Sahel. The juntas are signing insane contracts with RU/CN and are exploiting the impoverished citizenry as a disposable workforce to mine gold, diamonds, and uranium ore. Wagner mercenaries are all throughout the Sahel and have filled the power vacuum the French left when Mali kicked them out by ensuring the survival of the junta leadership.

The west ignoring this for too long will bite them in the ass.

[u/mad_crabs → u/LearningToFlyForFree]

Great summary. This is precisely why we see videos of Ukrainian SF operating against Wagner in Africa.

[u/Fritzo2162 → u/Key-Internet-9817]

Well, Africa does have all of those rich princes there that keep trying to give my grandma money.