7th AU-EU Partnership Summit: Algeria Defends Africa’s Rights

Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, National Community Abroad, and African Affairs, Ahmed Attaf, emphasised on Tuesday in Luanda, the capital of Angola, the need to reorder the priorities of the African-European partnership in the field of peace and security, given the resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government and the escalating scourge of terrorism in Africa.
In his address during the 7th Summit of Cooperation and Partnership between the African Union and the European Union, the Minister of State said that “Algeria calls for a reordering of the priorities of the African-European partnership in the field of peace and security,” considering that the summit “is being held in a highly complex, turbulent, and crisis-ridden international context, a context from which our continent has not been spared the repercussions and consequences. This is a truly alarming trajectory.”

In this regard, Attaf pointed to “the resurgence of unconstitutional government changes in Africa, changes that are no longer merely circumstantial reactions to fleeting or incidental circumstances, but rather a reality that is expanding and becoming entrenched in light of the blocked prospects for a return to constitutional and desired systems.”

He also noted “the exacerbation of the scourge of terrorism in Africa after its decline in the rest of the world, to the point that the Sahel region has now become the global epicentre or international hub for this scourge, which has wreaked havoc and committed crimes against African countries and peoples, amidst an international silence that is difficult to comprehend and explain.”

Attaf explained that “the proliferation of foreign military interventions in Africa, a phenomenon that has become a structural factor in the African security landscape, complicating crises, prolonging them, and eliminating opportunities for their peaceful resolution.” He added that this is compounded by “the decline of continental diplomacy and the waning international interest in African security and political priorities, which no longer receive the necessary attention on the multilateral international agenda.”

From this perspective, he asserted that “the priority of the African-European partnership in the field of peace and security must be directed towards ending the international apathy that plagues peace and security issues in Africa, because the challenges facing our continent are not merely local or limited in scope, but rather transnational and transcontinental dangers, both in themselves and in their repercussions.”

The second priority, the Minister of State added, “should be dedicated to restoring the credibility of African diplomacy and upholding the principle of African solutions to African problems, because our continental organization has already proven its ability to fulfill its role whenever it has been given the necessary space to act and whenever it has received the required international support.” He emphasized that the third priority “is real and effective investment in development as the best way to prevent crises and address their root causes and developmental dimensions.”

In this context, he highlighted Algeria’s aspiration to “realise the investment pledges made by Europe to Africa within the framework of the Global Gateway Initiative.”

As for the fourth and final priority, Attaf said, it is “a structural priority par excellence and relates to the imperative of ending the marginalization of Africa in all areas of international decision-making, political, security and economic,” stressing that “this marginalization remains in itself one of the most prominent structural factors that undermine Africa’s progress towards realizing its aspirations and goals enshrined in the continental agenda 2063.”