The Afro-Arab Summit in Kuwait The Third Africa-Arab Summit was held November 19 to 20, in Kuwait City, under the theme “Partners in Development and Investment”. The Summit afforded leaders from Africa and the Arab world the opportunity to carry out an overall assessment of their partnership and agree on strategies and mechanisms for better implementation of their Action Plan. Prior to the Summit, preparatory meetings were held at the levels of Senior Officials and of Ministers November 14 to 17. As Current Chair of the African Union, Ethiopia co-chaired both the Senior Officials’ and Summit meetings. As a member of the Africa-Arab Coordination Committee, composed of Ethiopia, Benin, Chad, Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait, the African Union Commission and the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, Ethiopia also played an active role in the preparations and finalization of both the working and outcome documents of the Summit. The Committee held its 4th meeting on November 13 in Kuwait City. At the Foreign Ministers meeting, Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, urged countries to work in collaboration to boost partnership between African and Arab countries. He said they needed to make huge investments in agriculture with a bid to ensure food security, and he added that Kuwait will continue to strengthen the support it provides through the Kuwait fund. The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr Dlamini Zuma, said the Africa-Arab partnership had seen efforts to move forward the trade, economic and financial agenda of the Strategy and the joint Action Plan, although progress had been hindered by institutional and financial challenges. She said encouraging steps were being taken to deal with the challenges of migration and to implement other socio-cultural projects which are aimed at enhancing people-to-people interactions. Dr Dlamini Zuma also noted that in the areas of peace and security “the two sides have taken practical measures to create direct working relations between their peace and security councils in order to avoid duplication of efforts.” At the end of the two-day Summit, the Heads of State and Government of the African Union and the League of Arab States issued the “Kuwait Declaration” voicing their collective desire to promote cooperation in the political, economic and socio-cultural fields. The Declaration congratulated the African Union on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity, welcoming the commemoration of this important milestone in African history. The Heads of State and Government renewed their commitment to the Constitutive Act of the African Union and the Charter of the League of Arab States and the promotion of the principles of international law and the United Nations charter, in particular the principles pertaining to the respect for the national sovereignty of states, their territorial integrity and non-interference in their internal affairs. They stressed commitment to the protection of human rights and respect of international humanitarian law as well as mutual goals to positively contribute to global stability, development and cooperation. They reaffirmed commitment to strengthen cooperation between Africa and the Arab region on the basis of a strategic partnership, to continue their efforts for the development of Africa-Arab cooperation and strengthen South-South co-operation and consolidate Africa-Arab relations, based on the principles of equality, mutual interests and respect. One of the most important issues discussed at the Summit was migration. Speaking at the opening session, Prime Minister Hailemariam urged African and Arab countries to give particular attention to the issue of immigrants as part of the effort to boost partnership in development and investment between the two regions. He said both needed to work together to solve problems encountered by immigrants, and called for a joint system to help them to work together to solve problems related to immigration. He expressed appreciation of the initiative of the Foreign Ministers to establish a Cooperation and Technical Committee for this and urged governments to extend their support to it. He pointed out the problems that might arise if governments failed to resolve this issue. The Summit demonstrated that the two sides had a mutual understanding that international migration between Africa and the Arab world had major relevance for the socio-economic development of origin, transit and destination countries in the two regions. The leaders of the two regions agreed to address the issue of migration in a coherent and comprehensive manner, with due regard to socio-economic growth as well as respect for human rights. They decided to immediately put in place an Africa-Arab Technical and Coordination Committee on Migration, to undertake extensive studies and come up with concrete recommendations that could enable the two sides to move forward on this issue. In addition to Migration, the Summit adopted a number of Resolutions calling for implementation of actions essential for the effective implementation of the Action Plan. It decided to create a joint Africa-Arab Financing Mechanism, and requested the Africa-Arab Coordination Committee, in collaboration with the AUC, the General Secretariat of the Arab League, and African and Arab financial institutions, to determine sources of funding for Mechanism. It called for strengthening of the Africa-Arab Economic and Development Forum to enhance private sector and civil society participation in the partnership process, for increasing the capacities of the AUC and Secretariat of the Arab League to effectively implement the Africa-Arab Partnership Strategy and Joint Action Plan 2011-16, as well as the Kuwait Declaration, and for institutionalization of meetings of the Monitoring and Follow-up Mechanism of the Africa-Arab Partnership. It also commended the resolution of the 3rd Arab Development Summit to raise the capital of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa by 50% and appreciated its role in promotion of Africa’s Development. It welcomed the support provided by the Arab Fund for Technical Assistance to African Countries to the Commission and its various regional offices such as the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development [organisation]. It recalled the adoption of the Africa-Arab Partnership Strategy and the Joint Action Plan 2011-2016 and reiterated commitment to expedite their implementation. The Heads of State and Government expressed full support for regional integration through increasing the volume of Africa-Arab trade and investment, and called upon governments and stakeholders to find peaceful settlements to political crises in the two regions, expressing determination to address the underlying causes of conflict and violence in Africa and the Arab regions. They called for enhancement of cooperation and coordination between Africa and Arab countries to combat terrorism in all its forms and transitional crime and to further support international efforts, and expressed gratitude for the $100 million donation offered by the Custodian of the two holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of the UN Centre to fight terrorism. They reaffirmed their commitment to comprehensive reform of the United Nations system including its security council; and welcomed the setting up of an Arab Court for Human Rights in Bahrain. They requested that all governments elaborate health programs integrated with development programs and support initiatives to integrate the policies combating epidemic diseases, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, and non-communicable diseases in educational, information and public awareness programs. They called upon the governments, private sector and civil society to play a major role in boosting agriculture and strengthening cooperation on rural development, agriculture development and food security. They urged joint development of new and renewable energy sources, and called upon the African and Arab financial institutions and the private sector to work in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) and the General Secretariat of the Arab League, to support the implementation of the infrastructure development program of the African Union and of the Arab League. The Heads of State and Government unanimously expressed their mutual interest in further developing the Afro-Arab partnership and committed themselves to giving the necessary leadership for a close follow-up on the effective implementation of these Resolutions as well as the Kuwait Declaration, which they adopted at the end of their Summit. To aid continuity and close follow-up, the Summit decided to retain the Co-Chairs of the Third Africa-Arab Summit (Ethiopia and Kuwait) as members of the Africa-Arab Coordination Committee until the convening of the next Africa-Arab Summit. Based on the principle of rotation, the next Africa-Arab Summit, in 2016, will be convened in Africa. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam, Chair of the African Union and Co-chair of the Summit, delivered a vote of thanks on behalf of the delegates participating in the Third Africa-Arab Summit, thanking the Emir and expressing Africa’s deep gratitude to the Government and People of the State of Kuwait. The Prime Minister also welcomed the Emir of Kuwait’s announcement during the Summit that Kuwait would provide soft loans to Africa amounting to US$1 billion in the next five years in order to support investment in Africa as well as another US$1 billion for development to be channeled through the World Bank and other development funds, and in addition an Annual Prize of one million US Dollars for development research in Africa through the Kuwait Scientific Development Institution. The Prime Minister also recalled that Africa and particularly Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire and the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, representing Africa as non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, had stood in solidarity with Kuwait during the Gulf crisis at the beginning of the 1990s. He expressed his confidence that this solidarity and friendship would continue to prosper in the coming years.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 06:00:29 +0000