Restore Cameroon’s place in the concert of nations and position it for economic diplomacy

• The voice of Cameroon, so powerful under President Ahidjo (two successive General Secretaries to the OAU) has virtually disappeared. The country is no more than a diplomatic dwarf, the few languishing speeches delivered in front of the sparse audience of the general assembly of the United Nations, just repeating the standard thinking. At the African level, Cameroon has become inaudible both in the Central Africa sub-region where countries such as Chad and Equatorial Guinea are better heard, and at the continental level where the Cameroon representative is a mere Head of Institutional Reform Unit at the African Union.
• There are few occasions when Cameroon’s top authorities have travelled to see their African peers to negotiate support for a Cameroonian citizen’s candidacy in international institutions, unlike in many West African countries where their Heads of State or of Diplomacy travel personally to campaign for the positioning of one of their members with international organisations. Today, to see a Cameroonian occupying an important position at the international level is more of a personal feat than a support of his own country, which was the opposite under the era of President Ahidjo’s regime. However, such diplomatic activism would have made it possible to place compatriots in important positions and enabled the country to benefit, in return, from substantial financing for the needs of the national economy.
• Faced with this situation, the CRM will affirm Cameroon on the regional, continental and global scene, by a strategic positioning on major international issues and the establishment of partnerships reflecting a good understanding of international issues and the interests of the country in short, medium and long term.

Consolidate our relationships, build new partnerships and develop our self-protection capacity

• All our action will be in the context of the global world in which we live. It will be about maintaining relationships with our partners that take into account mutual interests.
• We will explore new opportunities for relationships with new partners in Africa and around the world that have convergent economic and strategic interests with our country, especially the most dynamic and innovative countries.
• We will affirm our ambition to step up and will develop our capacity of self-protection. This involves
  strengthening our security arsenal both militarily for the defence of the integrity of our territory and our population, and at the food and economic levels.

Cooperation in the service of the national interest

• We intend to promote economic, technological and cultural cooperation in the service of the national interest.
• With this in mind, we will mobilise diplomatic action to promote the economic growth of our country. This leads us to place the Central African Region in particular and Africa in general at the centre of our strategic concerns. All our initiatives and our actions will be to first of reach out to these geographical entities in order to widen the potential market for products made in Cameroon.
• The conquest of the European, American and Asian markets will involve intelligent cooperation that we will build with the partner countries thanks to our compatriots of the diaspora present in these countries who will be our best assets and « ambassadors » for relay and follow-up on these markets. It is recognised that to sell our products on the international market, these products must meet binding standards. Some of our diaspora compatriots, active in different sectors, are experienced in developing and using these international standards and their expertise on these topics will
  benefit the domestic productive sector.
• We will put in place a cultural diplomacy of presence, affirmation and influence. With the adoption and institution of dual citizenship, our brave artists and athletes, who have acquired another citizenship from host countries, already present around the world and who have become famous through their art, will be involved in this promotion.
• We will work on the advent of the United States of Central Africa (USCA) and start with any state in the sub-region that will be ready.
• We will participate in the project of the African community for the construction of a high-speed train
  network to interconnect the different regions of Africa. Nigeria is already playing a key role in this project with the construction of a high-speed train (HSR) line between Abuja and Kaduna in northern Nigeria for a distance of 200 km. The construction of our internal network as described in the Land use planning chapter will be integrated into this regional and continental project.