Reviving Afro-Arab cooperation

(AU Monitor)-- The commissioner for political affairs of the African Union (AU) Commission, Julia Dolly Joiner, during a press conference she held at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia restated commitments of both African states and the Arab world to revitalise their cooperation since their first summit in Cairo more than three decades.

It was in March 1977 that African and Arab kings and heads of State and government held their first summit in Cairo, Egypt to define the principles and framework of collective and individual actions that needed to be taken by African and Arab countries to further intensify their long standing relation. Since then, there has never been another afro-Arab summit.

There are different areas of cooperation between African and Arab countries including cultural activities, Afro-Arab trade fair, and an Afro-Arab development forum that is under consideration as well the planned joint chamber of commerce. There are also diplomatic and political cooperation between Africa and the Arab world. ‘Given the geographical and cultural ties between our respective countries, it is very important to work together…and there is a strong commitment on the level of member states,’ said Joiner.

The Great Socialist Peoples’ Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has offered to host the second Afro-Arab summit in October this year and a standing commission will be meeting in March to plan for that summit. The standing committee, whose responsibility is to give policy directions, comprises 12 African members (Angola, Burkina Faso, the Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Mauritius, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania and Tunisia) and 12 Arab members (Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Syria and the United Arab Emirates).

Asked whether the Afro-Arab meeting plans to talk about Islamic extremism, Joiner said ‘nothing is definite …the draft of the agenda is not final. As I said, we have many areas of cooperation such as socio-cultural, economic and political…but I am not able to state exactly the details of the agenda’.

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