Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Burundi
At the 45th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the African Union, held in Accra, Ghana, on July 18, 2024, the Government of Burundi was represented by a delegation led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation His Excellency Ambassador Albert Shingiro.
In that session, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the AU member countries examined several reports including that of the 48th Ordinary Session of the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) and the report of the activities of the AU theme for the year 2024 with several themes that were also addressed, including those of the AU’s participation in the G20 and the partnerships of the African Union. It was also expected that the Executive Council would adopt the AU budget for the year 2025.
During the time for comments, interventions and assessments, a point on the strategy and the policy framework of the African Union partnerships which was on the agenda, Minister Albert Shingiro replied that that document is the result of an inclusive approach within the Commission, validated by it and analyzed and validated by the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) and that its new version constitutes a reference that would make it possible to overcome the current problems and allow Africa to engage in a collective and unified manner with the various partners. In addition, it provides the constructive and legally based proposals to the outstanding issues, namely nomenclatures, participation and classification of partnerships. Regarding the current proposals in terms of classification and participation, Burundi remains committed to the decision 762 which provided clarifications by taking into consideration the different modes of interaction between Africa and its partners, whether at the intergovernmental or institutional level.
As for the issue of unifying the nomenclatures of all partnerships, the proposal to unify the nomenclatures is not based on any decision of the deliberative bodies. The reason for the different nomenclatures are in the multitude of types of partners on the African continent, whether a country, a continent or a regional organization.
Participants concluded that there is a need of ensuring that proposals submitted for discussion and negotiation with African Union partners are in the interest of Africa, focused on its priorities and needs and are strategically aligned with Africa’s development and integration agenda as expressed in the African Union Agenda 2063. That new approach will enable a fair understanding of the areas of cooperation with partners, ownership of the agreed areas of cooperation and confidence building during the negotiation and implementation process.