They Will Conduct ‘Training Actions’: Two Years After the Defense Accord Ends, French Military Aircraft Set for Technical Stopover in Chad

Two Mirage 2000 fighter planes and a French CASA transport plane will make "a technical stopover in Chad very soon", where they will carry out "training actions", announced Thursday the spokesperson for the Armed Forces, specifying that this stage would be of "short duration". This "stopover" constitutes a new signal of the rapprochement initiated between the two countries, almost two years after Chad unilaterally broke the defense agreement it had with Paris. France then ended its permanent military presence in the country in January 2025.

"There has been a resumption of cooperation with Chad, while respecting Chad's sovereignty. (...) The goal for France is to engage in the fight against regional instability," declared Colonel Xavier Rival, spokesperson for the Chief of Staff of the French Armies, during a press conference.

“For the French armies (...) it is also developing the capabilities of the Chadian air force,” he added. “Mirage 2000s will make a technical stopover in Chad very soon, a short stopover which will also allow training activities to be carried out,” he added, confirming information from the Chadian press and TV5 Monde.

This stopover "is taking place within the framework of the GEX exercise" which is to be held in Ivory Coast and Gabon from November 8 to 30, he said, stressing that there have been "discussions between France and Chad to allow this action to take place in the full sovereignty of Chad." A declaration of intent signed in mid-October to structure defense cooperation Ties between Chad and France, the former colonial occupier, had significantly deteriorated in November 2024 with N'Djamena's sudden rupture of this defense agreement, putting an end to 60 years of deployment of French troops in the country. But a thaw was recorded last January when the President of Chad Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno was received at the Élysée by French President Emmanuel Macron.

More recently, on October 13, the two countries signed a declaration of intent in Paris to structure their defense cooperation "on renewed bases", following a new meeting between the two presidents. Signed by the defense ministers of the two countries, this declaration of intent provides a framework to “structure and develop bilateral defense cooperation, particularly in the areas of training, expertise, industry and technologies,” the French presidency explained at the time.

Machine-translated from French