In the meantime De Gaulle put Jacques Foccart, one of his close friends, in charge of maintaining a de facto dependency.[25][26] Therefore, from 1960 to 1974, Jacques Foccart held the function of chief advisor to the government of France on African policy. He was re-selected in 1986 by the new Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac, for two years.[27] When Chirac gained the presidency in 1995 Foccart was brought back again to the Elysée palace as an advisor. Until his death Foccart never stopped being influential in French-African diplomatic relations, and it is commonly considered that he and De Gaulle were the founding fathers of the neo-colonial relationship between France and Africa.[28] Throughout successive French governments until Sarkozy, defence of the African backyard, despite the evolution of forms and methods, has always remained a high strategic imperative.