ANTANANARIVO, April 23, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - President Emmanuel Macron begins a two-day visit to Madagascar Wednesday aiming to strengthen bilateral ties and consolidate France's presence in the Indian Ocean, despite ongoing colonial-era disputes.

It is the first official trip by a French president to the former French colony off Mozambique since Jacques Chirac visited in 2005.

Macron and his wife Brigitte are expected in the capital Antananarivo around 10:00 am (0700 GMT) to meet President Andry Rajoelina and business leaders.

The city has been cleaned up for the occasion, with the homeless cleared off pavements and tunnels where they sheltered, and street vendors told to move off.

"What hypocrisy," said a 22-year-old student who gave his name only as Feno. "Walk three streets down and you'll find the 'real Antananarivo'," he told AFP ahead of Macron's arrival.

France will use the visit to reassert itself in this part of the Indian Ocean, where it faces challenges to its sovereignty of several territories in the face of the growing ambitions of China and Russia.

Madagascar, a French-speaking island of 30 million people, disputes France's ownership of several small islets nearby called the Scattered Islands that stayed under French rule when its other African colonies became independent.

Similarly, the neighbouring archipelago nation of the Comoros claims the right to the island of Mayotte, a French department.

Both territories occupy a strategic position in the Mozambique Channel, a major transit route for international trade and rich in gas and oil.

- Hydropower dam -

Demands for the handover of these territories are about "national identity, access to resources and, moreover, a means of pressure to obtain something else from France," said Denys-Sacha Robin, an international maritime law specialist at the University of Paris-Nanterre.

While Paris favours a "co-management" of the Scattered Islands, there is a push for Rajoelina to raise a full handover, similar to the 2024 deal for Britain to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

The two nations also want to boost trade and investment, with France already Madagascar's top trading partner.

They are expected to finalise a deal for the entry of the French electricity giant EDF into Madagascar's hydroelectric company, CGHV, for cooperation in the construction of a major power dam.

A theme running through the visit will be the uncomfortable legacy of France's colonisation of the island, the fifth largest in the world, which is known for its biodiversity and natural resources but burdened by high poverty.

While Macron has pledged to return various cultural items taken by the French occupiers, plans were called off for him to bring back during this visit the skull of a king decapitated in 1897 by French troops and taken to France as a trophy.

One issue holding up the restitution of the remains of King Toera is a family request that his desecrated tomb be restored.

There are meanwhile demands for France to make a stronger admission of its colonial-era transgressions on the island, which gained full independence in 1960.

This includes the establishment of a commission "to shed full light on what are called colonial abuses", said University of Antananarivo historian Jeannot Rasoloarison.

The French president will also advocate for greater economic, health, maritime and security cooperation between Madagascar and France's regional possessions, including Mayotte and the island of Reunion.

On Thursday, he will call at a summit in Antananarivo of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) for Mayotte to be included in the grouping, which is being blocked by the Comoros.

Also likely to come up is the fate of dual national Paul Maillot Rafanoharana, sentenced in 2021 to 20 years in prison for an attempted a coup in Madagascar. He is being held in solitary confinement.

His co-accused Philippe François, sentenced to 10 years, was transferred to France in 2023.