The day before, Ahmed arrived in that city, where he will be one of the main voices in Africa, which aspires to establish a renewed partnership in accordance with current global dynamics.
Thousands of Ethiopians hope that the Summit will be the propitious setting for the prime minister to expose the reasons for the war between the government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been ongoing since November 2020.
And in addition to wanting a change of position from several European countries, accused like the United States of allying with the TPLF, they assume that the recent instability in the so-called Horn of Africa, an important international trade route, will also be the object of analysis.
With complicated points on the agenda and understanding of mutual needs and interests, the continents once again star in a Summit through their institutions after the previous edition, held in November 2017 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Health systems and vaccine production, agriculture and sustainable development, education, culture and professional training, migration and mobility, growth financing, more security architecture are some of the most important issues that will have to be dealt with in just two days.
Distributed in various round tables, the heads of state and government of the two regions also have the purpose of discussing issues related to support for the private sector and economic integration, governance, climate change, energy development and digital evolution.
For the AU and the EU, the Summit will be decisive in adopting a bilateral work strategy until 2030, which contributes to exploiting the potential of their nations more effectively and better dealing with all the obstacles that prevent it.
Senegal, recently elected president pro tempore of the AU, and Moussa Faki Mahamat, in his second term as head of the AU Commission, have an important starting point for their efforts in the conclave, initially scheduled for 2020.
They can promote the modification of a historically unequal relationship, due to the Covid-19 pandemic that transformed global contexts, and with the aim of initiating actions to build resilience in nutrition, theme of the year in Africa.
It also matters a lot for France’s rotating leadership in the EU, as French President Emmanuel Macron recently signaled that he aspires to change ties between Africans and Europeans, as well as seeing the Summit as a milestone beyond 2022.
jf/raj
