VZCZCXRO7628
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHCO #0123 0920931
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 020931Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY COTONOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0846
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1422
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0432

UNCLAS COTONOU 000123 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W ACOOK 
LONDON FOR PETER LORD 
PARIS FOR BKANEDA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL BN
SUBJECT: BENIN: GOB HOLDS AMBASSADORS CONFERENCE TO BOOST DIPLOMACY 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: On the personal initiative of President Yayi, the GOB 
held a three-day Ambassadors Conference, February 26-28, the second 
of its kind since 1981, to revitalize Beninese diplomacy. The event 
gathered over two-hundred officials and diplomats, including 31 
Beninese ambassadors accredited to countries all over the world. 
Deliberations focused on the assessment of Beninese diplomacy so far 
and ways to improve and bring it into line with President Yayi's 
economic agenda. In his opening remarks, Yayi called for a more 
proactive and result-oriented diplomacy to achieve economic 
progress. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Integration, 
Francophonie and the Beninese Diaspora, Jean Marie Ehouzou, 
contended that more Beninese diplomats need to be appointed to 
international organizations and encouraged increased participation 
of the Beninese diaspora in national economic efforts. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. During the February 26 opening ceremony of the Ambassadors 
Conference, President Yayi said that Beninese diplomacy had been 
successful since the country embraced democracy in 1990. However, he 
said that he wanted to reorient Beninese diplomacy towards 
facilitating international markets for Beninese exports. 
 
¶3. In his opening address, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
Jean-Marie Ehouzou, took stock of Beninese diplomacy since the 1990 
National Conference. He expressed satisfaction at Benin's diplomatic 
achievements, citing the visits of US president George Bush 
(February 2008), and Finish President Tarja Halonen (March 2009). 
Ehouzou mentioned Benin's successful support of Resolution 1612 to 
fight against the use of child soldiers in armed conflicts during 
its term on the United Nations Security Council in 2005. He also 
cited the participation of the Beninese Armed Forced in UN 
peacekeeping missions as a major diplomatic achievement. The 
Minister of Foreign Affairs said that Benin had enlarged it circle 
of partners by resuming diplomatic relations with a number of 
unspecified countries and by engaging in diplomatic outreach to 
emerging countries in the Middle East, South Asia and South America. 
He deplored the fact that Benin had no strategy for getting its 
officials appointed to regional and international organizations. 
Ehouzou affirmed that Benin's diplomatic standing was not up to the 
level that it had been on the international scene in 1990. He 
recalled that the conference aimed to enable diplomats to meet 
current economic challenges in order to put in place a more 
inventive and dynamic development-oriented diplomacy. 
 
¶4. On March 2, Jean-Marie Ehouzou accompanied by the 31 Ambassadors 
presented the findings of the conference to President Yayi. 
Recommendations of the conference included strategies to ensure 
better administrative and financial management of the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs and diplomatic missions abroad to reflect president 
Yayi's agenda for economic emergence. Diplomats pledged that they 
would observe the president's instructions to attain this end. Yayi 
committed himself to making the Ambassadors Conference an annual 
event to ensure follow-up. 
 
¶5. The February 2009 Ambassadors Conference was the second of its 
kind since Benin became a democracy in 1981. The GOB held three 
seminars in Cotonou (1990, 1998 and 2006), but none had gathered all 
the Beninese ambassadors. The GOB has expanded its diplomatic 
presence, from 18 embassies in 1990 to 31 in 2009. 
 
BROWN