Niger pursues a moderate foreign policy and maintains friendly relations with both East and West. It belongs to the United Nations and its main specialized agencies and in 1980-81 served on the UN Security Council. Niger maintains a special relationship with France and enjoys close relations with its West African neighbors. It is a charter member of the Organization of African Unity and the West African Monetary Union and also belongs to the Niger River Commission and the Lake Chad Basin Commission, the Economic Community of West African States, the Nonaligned Movement, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Disputes - international: Libya claims about 19,400 km² in northern Niger; delimitation of international boundaries in the vicinity of Lake Chad, the lack of which led to border incidents in the past, has been completed and awaits ratification by Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria