Chad to open embassy in Israel, five years after establishing ties
As a sign of Israel’s growing ties with Africa, President Mahamat Deby of Chad plans on Thursday to inaugurate his country’s embassy in Israel – in Ramat Gan – some five years after the countries established ties.
“Chad and Israel are today at a decisive turning point in their relationship,” Deby told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the two men met in Jerusalem on Wednesday, in what is the Chadian leader’s first official visit to Israel since he took office last year.
The Muslim-majority African country established formal diplomatic ties with Israel in 1961, a year after it was founded but those ties were
cut in 1972 to protest Israel’s retention of the territory it captured during the Six Day War of 1967.
During his last tenure in office which ended in 2021,
Netanyahu pushed to expand Israel’s ties with the African continent, restoring ties with Chad in 2019, which at the time was under the leadership of Deby’s father, Idriss.
Chad’s strategic location amid African countries struggling with Islamist insurgencies makes it of special interest to Israel.
Deby was greeted in Israel with enormous diplomatic fanfare, meeting with President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Mossad Chief David Barnea and planting an olive tree of peace at the Jewish National Fund’s (KKL-JNF) Grove of Nations in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu told Deby that Chad signified a “tremendously important relationship with a major country in the heart of Africa. It is something that we want to carry to new levels, new heights, and your visit here in Israel and the opening of the embassy is
a reflection of that.
“We believe that our cooperation can help not only advance our relations and our cooperation but it is also part of Israel’s coming back to Africa and Africa coming back to Israel. We have common goals of security, prosperity and stability,” he added.
Herzog pointed to the differences in religion between the two states.
“I believe in the brave dialogue between the Jewish world and the world of Islam. I extend my hand in dialogue and I think you are a brave leader who is following in the footsteps of your brave father, and your courage, both yours and your father’s, will go down in history when it comes to the progress in relations between Israel and Muslim and African countries,” Herzog said.