France's President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in South Africa today for a two-day visit, his first to a non-Francophone African nation. Energy will be high on the list of priorities when Thabo Mbeki and Sarkozy sit down to talk, but so too will be agreements in technology, tourism, African relations, and other areas. Mbeki's relationship with Sarkozy's predecessor, Chirac, was lukewarm, so it will be interesting to see if Mbeki and Sarkozy, who has shown occasional tone-deafness when it comes to African issues, hit it off.
