The seventh Africa-Europe summit in Angola: Africa and Europe discuss strengthening partnership and cooperation at their seventh summit
The seventh Africa-Europe summit kicked off in Angola on Monday to strengthen relations between the two parties, especially on trade and migration issues.
The summit, which is attended by 80 leaders from both continents, and it’s being held under the theme “Promoting peace and prosperity through effective multilateralism”.
Angolan President Joao Lourenço, who holds the AU’s rotating chairmanship, called for the adoption of fairer debt restructuring instruments and innovative financing instruments to support Africa’s development.
Speaking at the opening of the summit, Lourenço said there was a need for a new vision for the financial relationship between Africa and international lending institutions, so that we can invest in development without being suffocated by unsustainable debt.
On behalf of Africa as a whole, he reiterated the need to work towards a comprehensive reform of the global financial system, including fairer debt restructuring mechanisms.
From her part, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the opening of the summit that there is a need to build the industries of the future together and a need to make the most of talent and resources and get rid of dangerous dependencies.
Von der Leyen considered that the prosperity of the European and African parties is more interconnected than ever, as the European Union is the largest source of foreign direct investment on the African continent and its largest trading partner, with the value of trade exchanges of goods and services between them reaching 467 billion euros in 2023.
Addressing the summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the need to reform the global financial architecture for the benefit of all, adding that this would mean ending the cycle of crushing debt… Giving developing countries, many of them in Africa, greater participation and influence in global financial institutions.
Participants in the summit include German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, French President Emmanuel Macron, Kenyan President William Ruto, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
The African Union and the European Union have been cooperating for a quarter of a century, and analysts believe that relations between the two parties need to be renewed if Europe is to maintain its role as a key partner, in light of great competition between major powers on the African continent.
