Both Paris and Beijing, as well as Japan and the United States, have military bases in Djibouti because of its location along a shipping lane that leads to the Suez Canal.

Its geographic importance in the Horn of Africa was the foundation of Djibouti’s hopes of becoming a major trading centre.

Two years ago, East Africa’s smallest country inaugurated its newest and biggest port – part of an infrastructure expansion, partly funded by China, that included three more ports and a railway to Addis Ababa, the capital of landlocked Ethiopia.

The government of Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh hoped to turn the country into a “new Dubai” competing for business with overburdened African ports such as Mombasa in Kenya.

Sandwiched between Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, Djibouti – population 980,000 according to the United Nations – is a crucial part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road Initiative” along what has been nicknamed the “Maritime Silk Road”.

It allows China to reach Africa and Europe across the Indian Ocean.

The project involved Beijing lending developing countries in Asia and Africa huge amounts of money to develop infrastructure and ease trade.

But the International Monetary Fund sounded the alarm over an increase of Djibouti’s public debt from half of GDP in 2014 to 85 per cent in 2017.

The US-based China Africa Research Initiative in 2017 estimated that Djibouti’s debt to China was about US$1.3 billion.

“I would not want international investments to weaken the sovereignty of our partners,” Macron said on Tuesday, in a reference to China’s growing presence in Africa.

“French companies are able to offer a respectful partnership.”

Guelleh, who described himself as “a great friend of China” when he visited Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2017, told Macron: “There are opportunities for French companies, particularly in the field of infrastructure.

“Our country is open, I have not lost hope that France can boost its investments in Djibouti.”

Also on Tuesday, Macron visited the remote Ethiopian town of Lalibela with its renowned 13th-century church complex, a Unesco World Heritage site.

He promised to “finance and assist the work with the Ethiopians to restore these churches”, threatened by erosion and temporarily covered by vast metal-and-tarpaulin structures loathed by worshippers.

Macron said he believed in a model of “cultural diplomacy” made of “balanced partnerships”.

At a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Macron also announced a defence agreement in which France will loan €85 million (US$96 million) to Ethiopia to support the establishment of a navy for the landlocked country.

Ethiopia has access to the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea ports thanks to deals with neighbours Djibouti and Sudan.

On Wednesday, Macron was expected to attend a state dinner in Addis Ababa and meet leaders of the African Union before making the first trip to Kenya by a French president.

On Thursday, in the capital, Nairobi, he will attend the One Planet Summit on reversing climate change.

He is also expected to head to Nairobi Central Railway Station to announce contracts worth around €3 billion to extend a line to the capital’s airport.

During his visit to East Africa on Tuesday, Rwanda invited Macron to attend the 25th anniversary of the country’s 1994 genocide in which about 800,000 of its citizens perished.

Rwandan authorities have long accused France of complicity in the killings. Macron has not indicated whether he will attend the event on April 7 in the capital, Kigali.