The President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, arrived this Sunday in the French capital, Paris, where he will participate today in a summit on Financing of African Economies, convened by French President Emmanuel Macron.

On the sidelines of the summit, Nyusi and Macron will meet on Tuesday to address issues related to bilateral relations between Mozambique and France and the situation of terrorism in Cabo Delgado, which has already led to the suspension of the activities of France's largest oil company (Total) in the country, will be one of the key issues, and may define the levels of participation of Paris in efforts to combat the ongoing insurgency.

According to the Elysée Palace, Paris has already expressed to Maputo, its willingness to support, however, the government of Filipe Nyusi, has not yet given any response.

"We have already made several offers to support the Mozambican government, especially, with regard to the capacity building of the army, and also, with regard to maritime security, but these offers are still under discussion and we hope that the meetings that will take place in Paris will speed up the decisions. For now, there are only offers on the table, but no concrete steps have been taken, yet," said M. Frank, Macron's Political Advisor, speaking Friday at a briefing on the summit that starts tomorrow.

The academic and professor of International Relations, Hilário Chacate believes that the meeting between Nyusi and Macron will put the cards on the table, and could be another page in Mozambique's dilemmas around Cabo Delgado.

"There are several dilemmas that need to be addressed, and I cannot state categorically whether the Government of Mozambique will accept. If it denied help from voluntary countries such as the European Union and the United States of America, I don't know if it will accept help from France, considering the level of interests that this country has," he analyzed.

On the other hand, Chacate believes that Mozambique must decide urgently, in order not to lose the window of opportunity that gas still represents as a commodity.

"It is very difficult for Mozambique to reject all possibilities of support, insofar as we need to look at the timing of the exploration of energy resources, especially natural gas. There is evidence that in a few decades gas will not have the commercial value it has today, so if Mozambique does not move forward with gas exploration, in the short and medium term, and Total, which has already invested billions in Cabo Delgado, does not move forward with exploration, it could run the risk of losing its investments there.