DECISION ON AFRICA’S STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
Doc. EX.CL/992(XXX)iv
The Executive Council,
A. EVALUATION OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
1. TAKES NOTE of the Report of the PRC on “the Evaluation of the Strategic Partnerships,” and EXPRESSES APPRECIATION on the work done so far on the evaluation process;
2. DIRECTS the PRC, in collaboration with the Commission and the RECs, to hold special sessions within the next six months (February-July) to allow for an in- depth discussion and analysis of all aspects of Strategic Partnership in order to formulate appropriate proposals and recommendations to be submitted to the July 2017 Summit, taking into account the following;
i) The process of institutional and structural reform of the African Union led by H.E. Mr. President Paul Kagame;
ii) The criteria that will allow determining the dimension and importance of each partnership, among others, in terms of their benefits to the development of the continent and the implementation of Agenda 2063;
iii) Highlight the indicators relating to all the benefits Africa reaps from partnerships;
iv) The roles that the various entities of the African Union should play in the management and coordination of strategic partnerships;
v) The relevance of the formats of participation of Member States in the various partnerships;
vi) Strengthening the institutional capacity of the Commission (Partnerships Management and Coordination Division).
3. FURTHER DIRECTS the Commission to convey a correspondence to the Group of African Ambassadors in capitals where Africa has strategic partnerships, including those of New York and Geneva, to abide by all the relevant AU Policy Organs’ decisions and common positions relating to Africa’s Strategic Partnerships and REQUESTS Member States to instruct their Ambassadors in these countries to abide by AU decisions;
4. REAFFIRMS the right of all Member States without distinction to participate in all meetings, activities and events organized within the context of partnerships of which the AU is part as stipulated in paragraph 10 of the Executive Council Decision EX.CL/Dec.877(XXVII) of June 2015 and Decision EX.CL/Dec.899(XXVII) of January 2016;
5. DECIDES that all Member States that do not comply with the provisions of the abovementioned decision will be deprived from the privilege of hosting the meetings in accordance with Article 23 of the Constitutive Act;
6. REAFFIRMS the central role of the PRC in collaboration with the African Diplomatic Corp in countries where the AU has strategic partnerships in leading the processes.
B. TOKYO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT (TICAD)
7. EXPRESSES APPRECIATION to:
i) the People and Government of the Republic of Kenya for the successful hosting of the first ever TICAD Summit in Africa, the TICAD VI Summit held in Nairobi on 27-28 August 2016;
ii) to the People and Government of Djibouti and the People and Government of the Islamic Republic of The Gambia for the successful hosting of the TICAD Senior Officials Meeting and the combined TICAD V Follow-Up and TICAD VI Preparatory Ministerial Meetings held in Djibouti and Banjul on 14- 15 March 2016 and 16-17 June 2016, respectively.
8. DIRECTS the Commission, in collaboration with the PRC, to follow up on the implementation of the TICAD VI Implementation Plan as relevant to the three agreed upon priority areas in line with AU structural transformative Agenda 2063.
C. AFRICA-ARAB PARTNERSHIP
9. EXPRESSES APPRECIATION to:
i) the People and Government of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea for successfully hosting the 4th Africa-Arab Summit and pre-Summit meetings in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, from 17 to 23 November 2016;
ii) all AU Member States for the strong solidarity demonstrated during the Malabo Summit in defence of the principles and decisions of the African Union.
10. DIRECTS the Commission, in accordance with the principles and decisions of the AU, and in collaboration with the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, to coordinate and follow up on the timely implementation of the Resolutions of the 4th Africa-Arab Summit especially:
i) Resolution 10, which requested the two sides to engage in constructive discussions to define mutually acceptable and binding principles and criteria for the joint meetings of the Africa-Arab Partnership in a way that reflect their mutual interests and the potential of their strategic relations;
ii) Resolution 7, which called for the convening of an extra-ordinary session of the Joint Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, within a period of six (6) months from the date of this Resolution to adopt the Action Plan.
iii) To elaborate effective mechanism to evaluate and follow up the decisions on this Partnership.
D. AFRICA-KOREA FORUM
11. EXPRESSES APPRECIATION to the People and Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for the successful hosting of the 4th Forum for Africa-Korea Cooperation that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 6-7 December 2016;
12. REQUESTS the Commission in close collaboration with the PRC and the Partner to implement the Addis Ababa Declaration and to determine the content of the Africa-Korea Framework of Cooperation 2017-2021 that both sides agree to implement within a period of six months from the date of adoption of the Addis Ababa Declaration;
E. AFRICAN UNION-EUROPEAN UNION
13. TAKES NOTE of the proposed date of November 2017 for the Fifth AU-EU Summit in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; and REQUESTS the host Country in collaboration with the Commission to propose in due course the exact date of the Summit;
14. URGES Member States through the PRC to engage in internal consultations in order to kick start the necessary preparation process in collaboration with the Commission and the host country, as per the usual practice;
F. AFRICA-INDIA
15. ENCOURAGES the two sides to expedite the process of implementing the Declaration and framework for Cooperation as adopted by the 3rd Africa-India Summit that was held in Delhi, India, in 2015;
G. AFRICA-SOUTH AMERICA COOPERATION FORUM
16. REQUESTS the Commission in collaboration with the PRC to engage in consultations with the South American side with a view to proposing new dates for the Summit that would be held in 2017;
H. AFRICA-TURKEY PARTNERSHIP
17. REQUESTS the Commission in collaboration with the PRC to:
i) Engage with Turkey with a view to bringing the Africa - Turkey Economic and Business Forum as well as the Africa - Turkey Think Tank Forum under the framework of the Africa - Turkey Partnership and within the context of Agenda 2063;
ii) Continue consultations with Turkey on the dates for holding the following meetings:
• 7th Senior Officials Meeting;
• Think Tank Forum;
• Ministerial Review Conference;
• Other Africa-Turkey related events.
I. FORUM ON CHINA-AFRICA COOPERATION (FOCAC)
18. INSTRUCTS the PRC, in collaboration with Commission, to design mechanisms for the full involvement of the African Union in the effective management of this partnership;
19. REQUESTS the African and the Chinese sides to establish appropriate mechanisms that would expedite the implementation of the outcomes of the 2015 FOCAC Summit that was held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
J. THE FUTURE OF THE AFRICAN, CARRIBBEAN AND PACIFIC GROUP OF STATES (ACP) AND THE PROSPECTS OF ACP- EUROPEAN UNION (EU) RELATIONS FOR THE PERIOD POST-2020 (COTONOU AGREEMENT)
20. MANDATES the PRC through its Sub-Committee on Multilateral Cooperation, in collaboration with the Commission, relevant AU Organs, the RECs and African experts and working closely with the African Group of Ambassadors in Brussels, to elaborate a Common African Position on Post-2020 Cotonou Agreement, which is coming to an end in 2020 and to communicate the outcome documents to Member States before the July 2017 Summit;
21. REQUESTS the Commission to convene an Extraordinary Session of the Executive Council should the matter require urgent decision by the Executive Council before the July 2017 Summit;
22. FURTHER REQUESTS the PRC to allocate the necessary budget resources for the implementation of this decision.