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President Zuma Concludes his Official Visit to Côte D’ivoire to Attend 5th AU-EU Summit

President Jacob Zuma has characterized the Fifth African Union-European Union Summit held in Abidjan in the Republic of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire as positive and fruitful as the two regions agreed on various issues of mutual concern particularly trade and investment, youth development as well as peace and security.

The President arrived in Pretoria this morning, 1 December. 

The Summit which took place under the theme: “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in Youth”, focused on matters that affect the two regions including enhancing economic opportunities for youth, mobility and migration, trade and investment, cooperation on peace and security as well as cooperation on governance between the two regions.

President Zuma said he was pleased that there was a shared understanding of the need to change the nature of the relations between the AU and EU from the post-colonial model of dependency to a new partnership of interdependence that addresses Africa’s development challenges and contributes to shared prosperity between the two regions.

“We agreed that it was essential to assess and review the relationship between the two regions whose genesis was characterised by the said trilogy of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism.”

“Our view is that this relationship, which is evolving from a donor-recipient model, was largely benefiting European countries and that can longer be sustained, therefore fundamental changes were needed. The continued underdevelopment of Africa and conflicts in certain part of the continent were, to a certain extent, the result of the history of our uneven relationship.”

“Therefore there is an urgent need to fundamentally transform the structure and content of our relations into a new meaningful and mutually beneficial partnership that will particularly benefit the youth and women,” the President said.

The President expressed great repulsion on the violation of the rights of African migrants who are unlawfully detained, abused and auctioned in Libya, an act that constitute modern-day slavery.

“We are shocked and outraged by the reports of the auctioning of African migrants in Libya and the unlawful detention of thousands of them, including pregnant women and children.

We condemn this gross violation of human rights in the strongest possible terms and we all agreed that the two regions should work together with authorities in Libya to urgently curb this appalling situation in Libya.  

“We unanimously agreed that the Libyan government should immediately institute investigations on this matter and publish the report. We also agreed that the two regions and the United Nations will study that report and if there are any challenges or discrepancies, these institutions will have to intervene immediately.

We cannot let the calls for justice for these victims go unheard. We need to act decisively and support the Libyan Government of National Accord to address this human tragedy and eradicate the scourge of modern day slavery, exploitation and forced labour, currently unfolding in front of our eyes,” President Zuma said.

The summit further called on international community to urgently provide financial, material and technical support for the efforts of the AU Commission, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the countries whose nationals are stranded in Libya, to facilitate the return of migrants who wish to be repatriated.

President Zuma said South Africa was of the view that there was a need for both regions to swiftly address the underlying factors that force the migrants to flee their countries including conflicts, underdevelopment, poverty, unemployment and lack of economic opportunities in Africa

On the national level, the Summit gave new impetus to the South Africa-EU Strategic Partnership specifically since it is the 10th Anniversary of the partnership. To enhance this strategic partnership, President Zuma held a bilateral meeting with the EU Commission President, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker, on the sidelines of the summit where the two leaders agreed on the need to strengthen the partnership.

“Our meeting with EU Commission President was very successful and we agreed that we will hold a South Africa-EU Strategic Partnership summit early next year in Europe as the last summit was held in South Africa in 2013.

Our political and economic relations with the European Union have been very strong and cordial and we are looking forward to the summit next year that will further reinforce and cement our relations.

We also used the summit to lobby the European Union to support South Africa’s campaign to get a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council next year. We further used the summit to lobby the EU countries to support Africa and other regions’ call for the transformation of the United Nations structures for the benefit of all member states, not the few, and also to change the nature in which the UN is operating particularly the Security Council,” President Zuma concluded.   

South Africa further used the summit to enhance strategic economic and diplomatic relations through various engagements in the Summit, and in the side events such as Business Forum with a focus on inclusive economic growth, youth employment and entrepreneurship

President Zuma was accompanied by Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Bulelani Magwanishe.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Presidency.