In new book: Diplomat reviews US-Cameroon relation, outlines new fruitful guidelines.

The review is contained in a new book title: “Le couple Cameroun États-Unis d’Amérique: Histoire des relations diplomatiques de 1960 à 2021 et nécessité d’une nouvelle ingénierie diplomatique du Cameroun”, loosely translated to English as: “The Cameroon-United States of America marriage: History of the diplomatic relations from 1960 to 2021 and the need for a new diplomatic engineering of Cameroon”. 

It is authored by the Ambassador of Cameroon to Japan, Dr Pierre Ndzengue. The 414-page book segmented into five parts was used to review the partnership between the two countries.

This was during an event organised at the American Center at the US Embassy in Yaounde. The discussions were held Wednesday January 10.

The meeting was attended by a live audience, top among them, the US Ambassador to Cameroon, Christopher John Lamora, and former Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Ngole Philip Ngwese.

The diplomat gave a brief address at the event. Hon Banmi Emmanuel of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the National Assembly and two Senators; Nicole Okala Bilai and Fon Chafah both of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Senate, also attended the event as part of the VIP section of the live audience.

During the discussion, Ambassador Ndzengue and the live audience who asked questions, exchanged views on what was achieved by Cameroon and the US through the partnership between 1960 to 2021.

The Cameroonian diplomat in his book, grouped the phases the two nations have gone through in the course of the relationship into four key areas: the time of love; turbulence; dialogue and consultation and the period of reconciliation. 

Ambassador Ndzengue zoomed deeply into all the key periods including the moment of love which he said was mostly experienced when the relationship between Cameroon and the US was freshly established led notably by president Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon and president John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The period of turbulence, he said, could be established and grouped to be period when issues of human rights and terrorism came to the forefront during relationship between the two states. 

Despite the issues over the years, the Ambassador in the course of the discussion, reaffirmed that the relationship between the two countries have over the years, repeatedly punch above the challenges. 

He said the point of divergence experienced by the friendly nations have consistently been managed over the years by the will to focus on negotiations as the two states disagree productively without being disagreeable. 

This, the diplomatic stated, leading to the nations resultantly coming back to the point of convergence and working for the interest of the two nations.

The live audience which also included journalists, diplomats, youth groups among others, also detailed the discussion on what Cameroon as a country could deeply benefit from its collaboration with the US notably in the fight against terrorism and underdevelopment.

Need for new development roadmap 

Ambassador Ndzengue said Cameroon as a country must bring forth a new development roadmap designed to enable the country fully benefit from its collaboration with the US as a development driver.

The vision of a new roadmap powered through intentional engineering, he said, will be fully successful if anchored by Cameroon’s Head of State, President Paul Biya, who is respected globally for his mastery of international relations and his quest to always put Cameroonians’ interest first. 

The author said country will witness more growth if the Head of State pairs up with his international partners to lead the change in the country.

He insisted that such moves could among others, see major US companies establishing offices in Cameroon and taking other actions to boost development in Cameroon.

US dedicated to consolidating relation with Cameroon

Speaking in separate interventions in the course of last week’s discussions, US Ambassador to Cameroon, Christopher Lamora, praised Ambassador Ndzengue for putting together the book reviewing the road covered by his country and Cameroon over the years. 

The diplomat said the US which was the first country to establish relationship with Cameroon after its independence in 1960, remains a friendly nation to Cameroon and will be focused on consolidating the friendly and fruitful partnership. 

Since the establishment of the relationship between Cameroon and the US, the diplomat said his country has remained one of Cameroon’s biggest partners. The country invests billions in Cameroon annually to better the lives of Cameroonian citizens. 

The US also considers Cameroon to be one of its most important partners on the African continent with fruitful collaboration in several domains notably in the fight against terrorism and the promotion of human rights.