Relationship dossier
Vatican City
Madagascar
Relationship assessment
A notable papal visit marked diplomatic engagement between the Holy See and Madagascar.
Vatican City toward Madagascar
+20The Holy See, which generally conducts Vatican City’s external relations, engaged Madagascar through Pope Francis’s 2019 visit and meetings with national leaders.
Madagascar toward Vatican City
+20Madagascar hosted Pope Francis’s 2019 visit and facilitated meetings with national leaders, providing a concrete instance of government engagement with the Holy See.
Overall relationship
+20The relationship has included high-level diplomatic engagement, notably Pope Francis’s 2019 visit to Madagascar. The extent and durability of cooperation beyond that engagement are unclear.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Vatican City’s external relations are generally conducted through the Holy See. A notable bilateral engagement was Pope Francis’s 2019 visit to Madagascar, which included meetings with national leaders. The visit indicates substantive diplomatic engagement, though the breadth of other government-to-government cooperation is unclear.
Key developments
Pope Francis visited Madagascar and held meetings with national leaders.
Major uncertainties
- The scope of ongoing bilateral cooperation beyond the 2019 papal visit is unclear.
- The extent of formal bilateral agreements and their implementation is unclear.