Foreign policy issues
In the past, Togo’s foreign policy relations were directed towards the European Union, the United Nations and the various African organizations and alliances. Togo has a good and tension-free relationship with all three neighboring countries. After the western donor countries terminated their cooperation in 1993, Togo looked for new partners and intensified relations with the Arab-Islamic world and also with the People’s Republic of China.
According to computergees, Togo is a member of the United Nations and its specialized agencies, the UA – Union Africaine, the CEDEAO / ECOWAS and the UEMOA (see economic section), OHADA – Organization pour l’Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires, OIC – Organization of Islamic Coooperation, is associated with the EU through the Lomé and Cotonou agreements and a member of the Francophonie. 2011 was Togo as a non-permanent member for two years in the Security Council elected the United Nations. Togo’s diplomatic missions are listed in alphabetical order on the government website, as are the foreign diplomatic missions in Togo. In the Global Peace Index of 2020, Togo ranks 108th out of 163.
Besides France, Germany is Togo’s most important partner in Europe. In April 2016, a German delegation of members of the Bundestag and representatives from business visited Lomé. The politicians spoke of a spring in German-Togolese relations. On June 8, 2016, President Faure Gnassingbé made a three-day state visit to Berlin and spent the third day in Munich.
Togo has repeatedly acted as a mediator and mediator in intra-African conflicts, and the current President Faure Gnassingbé continues this role, as with the change of government in Burkina Faso in 2014. Together with other CEDEAO states, Togo is participating in the fight against piracy with the ‘ECOWAS Integrated Maritime Strategy’ (EIMS) in the so-called Pilot Zone E, the most dangerous coastal region in West Africa, to which Togo also belongs. The government is trying to redefine the sea borders, set up an exclusive economic zone and start negotiations with the neighboring states.
In 2014 the government launched the online magazine ‘togodiplomatie.info’. Togo intensified or established new diplomatic relations with countries such as the Baltic republics, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and Brazil. Togo wants to develop even more foreign policy activities in order to be better positioned on the international stage.
Togo in Germany
According to the Federal Statistical Office, 10,145 Togoers were living in Germany on December 31, 2015, although the number is of course much higher, as the people who have now acquired German citizenship are not included in these statistics. At the same time studied 328 Togolese and Togolese in Germany. The way the German authorities deal with people from Togo is repeatedly the subject of critical reporting. Deportations, as in the case of Gerson Liebl, who can refer to German ancestors, or the deportation of a Togolese family ordered by officials who appeared in the film “Die Weggewäuferen”is impressively documented, sparked public criticism. In the play ‘Navigator Luna-Nord’, actress and author Linda Elsner searches for traces of her own family past between Germany, Togo and the GDR. Clément Klutse, a
graduate in business administration from Togo, was nominated as a candidate for the CDU for the 2015 state elections in Hamburg-Barmbek. The footballer Ihlas Bebou has been playing for Hannover 96 since 2017 and is a Togolese national player. The Society for the Promotion of Literature from Africa, Asia and Latin America presents literature by African authors and the Afroport portal
provides information nationwide about events relevant to Africa, such as exhibitions, festivals, TV tips, workshops, etc. A very impressive private Vodun Museum can be visited in Essen. The painter Pepitu Anumu, who lives in Freising, received the district’s cultural sponsorship award.
The addresses of the Togolese consulates in Bonn, Bremen, Deidesheim, Hanover and Munich can be found on the website of the Federal Foreign Office. In many German cities there are not only shops but also a number of associations, networks and clubs with social and artistic activities by Togoers and other Africans, for example in the African Quarter in Berlin, where some initiatives are committed to renaming colonial street names. An interactive city map of the taz vom Wedding shows the history of the ” African Quarter ” and its colonial past.
The campaign alliance “No Humboldt 21!” demands the return of the bones of 17 people from Togo who were included in the so-called “S (chädel) collection” of the Royal Museum of Ethnology (today the Ethnological Museum Berlin).
