Foreign Minister Hold Talks With Portuguese And Algerian Counterparts

The Chairperson of the Executive Council of the African Union and Ghana?s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, MP, says the African Union is keen on strengthening its institutions to effectively manage peace and security on the continent and enable development to take place in an environment of respect for human rights and the rule of law. The Foreign Minister made the remarks when he paid a courtesy call on his Algerian counterpart Mourad Medelci in Algiers. He called on African countries to see it as their duty to advance the socio-economic development and transformation of the continent and to play the vanguard role of respecting and upholding human rights.

The Foreign Minister was in Algeria for African Partnership Forum At the meeting with his Algerian counterpart he noted that the adoption of NEPAD as the development programme of the African Union and its African Peer Review Mechanism has enhanced political and cooperate economic governance of the continent. He pointed out that since its adoption, the Heads of State and Government have used it as a platform in their engagement with partners all over the world to mobilise resources for the development of the continent. He noted that the immediate objective of Africa?s partnership should be the building of infrastructure in all its aspects, the industrialisation of the continent, including the service industry, and the diversification of Africa?s economy generally to enable Africa to compete effectively in a globalised world. On the Darfur crisis, he highlight the need for the entire international community to support the current ongoing efforts to ensure that all rebel groups attend the 27th October meeting in Tripoli, Libya to negotiate with the Government of Sudan for a political solution to the crisis.

The Algerian Foreign Minister, on his part on his part said it was time concrete steps were taken to create the necessary synergy to incorporate the NEPAD, which already had been acknowledged by the development partners such as the Group of Eight Industrialised countries (G-8) into the AU structure for maximum benefits and avoid the danger of the two developing parallel strategic plans.

Earlier in Lisbon Portugal, the Foreign Minister met with his Portuguese counterpart, Luis Amado, on the sidelines of the Conference of Foreign Affairs Committees Chairpersons of the Parliaments of the Member States of the European Union. He noted that recent increase in high-level visits and dialogue between the leaders of Europe and Africa has helped to consolidate the desires of the two continents to deepen cooperation. He emphasised that the recent interest of China in Africa should rather be seen as a wake up call for Europe to deepen cooperation with Africa. In his capacity as the Chairperson of the Executive Council of the African Union, the Foreign Minister emphasised that Africa is keen to ensure that the proposed strategic partnership between Europe and Africa which is to be adopted at the EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon in December 2007 is established on a firm foundation which will consolidate the past achievements of the two continents.