Foreign relations of Senegal

President Léopold Senghor advocated close relations with France and negotiation and compromise as the best means of resolving international differences. To a large extent, the two succeeding Presidents have carried on Senghor's policies and philosophies. Senegal has long supported functional integration among French-speaking West African states through the West African Economic and Monetary Union. Senegal has a high profile in many international organizations and was a member of the UN Security Council in 1988-89. It was elected to the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1997. Friendly to the West, especially to France and to the United States, Senegal also is a vigorous proponent of more assistance from developed countries to the Third World.

Senegal enjoys mostly cordial relations with its neighbors. In spite of clear progress on other fronts with Mauritania (border security, resource management, economic integration, etc.), there remains the problem of an estimated 30,000 Afro-Mauritanian refugees living in Senegal.

From 1996 to 2005, Senegal maintained relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) instead of the People's Republic of China.

Senegal is also a member of the International Criminal Court with a Bilateral Immunity Agreement of protection for the US-military (as covered under Article 98).

Disputes - international:short section of boundary with The Gambia is indefinite

Illicit drugs:transshipment point for Southwest and Southeast Asian heroin moving to Europe and North America; illicit cultivator of cannabis

ee also

* Senegalese diplomatic missions
* List of diplomatic missions in Senegal