DECISION ON AFRICA’S STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
Doc. EX.CL/751(XXII)iv
The Executive Council,
1. TAKES NOTE of the Report of the Sub-Committee of the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) on its activities relating to Multilateral Cooperation and on Africa’s strategic partnerships;
2. ALSO TAKES NOTE of the progress made in the preparations for the various meetings and Summits scheduled to be held in 2013;
3. RECALLS the recommendation of the global review on strategic partnerships with other parts of the world, as endorsed by the Executive Council in January 2012;
4. NOTES that this is work in progress and requests that an overall evaluation and stock taking be undertaken per existing partnerships, while applying in moratorium on new partnerships and report back to the Executive Council in January 2014;
5. DECIDES as follows:
Africa-Arab Cooperation:
i) TAKES NOTE of the Report of the First Meeting of the Coordination Committee
of the Africa-Arab Partnership, which was held at the Headquarters of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa on 5 November 2012, following the recommendation of the Tripartite Brainstorming Session held in Cairo, Egypt, on 4 October 2012;
ii) URGES the Commission and the League of Arab States to actively start
implementation of the Action Plan 2011 -2016 adopted by the 2nd Africa-Arab Summit, held in Sirte, Libya, in October 2010;
iii) REQUESTS the PRC, through its Sub-Committee on Multilateral Cooperation and
in close collaboration with the Commission, to actively prepare for the 3rd Africa-Arab Summit, planned to take place in Kuwait in November 2013.
Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) V:
i) TAKES NOTE of the recommendations of the Senior Officials meeting held in
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 15 to17 November 2012 to set up a Joint Drafting Committee to finalize the Yokohama Declaration and TICAD-V Plan of Action;
ii) RECALLS the role of the Commission, as one of the TICAD Co-organizers, and
REQUESTS the PRC, through its Sub-Committee on Multilateral Cooperation and in close collaboration with the Commission, to actively prepare for the TICAD V Ministerial Meeting, which will be held in Addis Ababa on 16-17 March 2013 and for the TICAD V Summit to be held in Yokohama, Japan, on 1-3 June 2013;
iii) CALLS UPON all Member States to actively participate in the TICAD-V Ministerial meeting and Summit.
Africa-South America
i) CALLS FOR the immediate convening of the Working Group on the Financing of
Africa-South America (ASA) Activities, in compliance with the decision of the ASA Ministerial Meeting held in November 2011 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, and the agreement reached during the meeting of the ASA Coordination Mechanism held at Ministerial Level in New York on 27 September 2012 in the margins of the UN General Assembly;
ii) URGES the South American side to provide a common and coordinated response
to the African proposed priority projects;
iii) REQUESTS the PRC, through its Sub-Committee on Multilateral Cooperation and
in close collaboration with the Commission, to finalize preparations for the ASA Summit scheduled for February 2013;
iv) CALLS UPON all Member States to actively participate in the ASA Summit.
Africa-EU
i) REQUESTS the AU Member States to review after the 4th Africa-EU Summit the
composition of all the current African Co-Chairs of the Joint Expert Groups (JEGs), so as to make the African representation more geographically spread amongst the five regions;
ii) ALSO REQUESTS the Commission to take the necessary steps, in consultation
with Member States, to evaluate the cooperation and resume the political dialogue with the European Union with a view to strengthening the Africa- European Union Dialogue.
Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)
i) REQUESTS the Commission to elaborate modalities and inform Member States on how to access the US $ 20 billion line of credit presented during the 5th FOCAC Ministerial Conference held in Beijing, 19-20 July 2012;
ii) CALLS UPON the PRC, through its Sub-Committee on Multilateral Cooperation and in close collaboration with the Commission, to follow-up on all the concrete outcomes of the 5th FOCAC Ministerial Conference held in Beijing from 19 to 20 July 2012, with the aim of ensuring that the African Union is a key stakeholder in the FOCAC process.
Africa-Korea
i) REQUESTS the Commission to work in close collaboration with the Government
of the Republic of Korea to craft the Africa-Korea Implementation Matrix;
ii) WELCOMES the agreement reached during the 3rd Africa-Korea Forum held in
Seoul, Korea, from 16 to 18 October 2012, to convene the Africa-Korea Forum on rotation basis, alternately in Africa and Korea;
iii) ENDORSES the proposal to hold the Africa-Korea Forum every two years.
Africa-Turkey
i) REQUESTS the Commission to urgently provide the necessary information requested by the Government of Turkey for implementation of the six already-approved priority projects to begin as soon as possible;
ii) EXPRESSES the need for the Financial Road Map, to be crafted between the Commission and the Government of the Republic of Turkey, on how the six already-approved priority projects are to be funded;
iii) RECALLS the agreement reached between Africa and Turkey to convene the 2nd Africa-Turkey Summit in Africa in accordance with the principle of rotation. Further recalls the offer made by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea to host the Summit during the first Ministerial Review Conference of Africa-Turkey Partnership held in December 2011 in Istanbul (Turkey).
iv) ENCOURAGES the two Member States to finalize consultations and communicate the outcome to the 21st Ordinary Session of the Assembly in May 2013.
v) CALLS UPON the African Union Commission to take all the necessary measures to ensure the successful planning of the Summit.
Africa-India
i) REQUESTS the Commission to work in collaboration with the Government of India, specifically regarding the unpacking of the key AU-endorsed continental programmes for effective implementation of the 2nd Africa-India Action Plan (2010-2014);
ii) CALLS FOR the Eastern Region to identify the country to host the India- Africa Integrated Textile Institute as soon as possible.
6. ALSO DECIDES to set a moratorium on new partnerships.