Luanda – The city of Benguela will host a Summit on the Lobito Corridor in December, with the participation of the presidents of the United States of America, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia and Tanzania.
The announcement was made on Sunday, in Luanda, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Téte António, when speaking at the opening of the 18th Interministerial Committee Session of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (CIRGL).
He added that, among other issues, the meeting will accelerate the attraction of the necessary investments for this important regional project, which could connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.
For Téte António, the Regional Organization's agenda must include more cooperation for the economic and social development of the region to the detriment of an agenda essentially for discussing conflicts.
He expressed that Angola has been following with great concern the financial crisis that the CIRGL Secretariat is going through and which threatens its sustainability and existence.
He called for the engagement of Member States in fulfilling their financial contributions, settling their debts as soon as possible with the Organization, to resolve the financial crisis in which it finds itself and to allow the Secretariat to carry out its mandate.
The Minister stated that, only in this way, the CIRGL will better respond to the expectations of the Member States, as well as to the current and future challenges of the sub-region, such as the revision of the Pact, an urgent need to materialize the objectives inherent to Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region.
He mentioned that with a view to capitalizing on the preponderant role of the CIRGL in conflict prevention, management and resolution processes, in alignment with the principles of the African Union (AU), improving its capacity to respond to crises that may arise, the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, as Acting President of CIRGL, recently requested the recognition and accreditation of the Organization, as a Regional Mechanism of the AU.
Téte António emphasized that the focus and priority of the acting presidency of the CIRGL, in the last two years, has been the search for a peaceful solution to the conflicts that prevail in the region, particularly in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in Sudan.
Regarding the conflict in the East of the DRC, he reported that the President of the Republic has been developing a set of initiatives that arise from the mandate given to him by the 16th Extraordinary Summit of the AU, held in May 2022, to facilitate dialogue and normalization of relations political - diplomatic and security relations between the DRC and Rwanda.
He added that it was in this capacity that several mini-summits were held in 2022 which, among others, culminated in the adoption of the CIRGL Roadmap on the Security Situation in the East of the DRC and the Joint Plan for the Resolution of the Security Crisis in the same territory and the Normalization of Political, Diplomatic and Cooperation Relations between the DRC and Rwanda.
Téte António praised the excellent coordination between the CIRGL and the East African Community (EAC), in these pacification efforts, which allowed in 2023, the observance of a ceasefire that was in force for around nine (9) months.
In turn, the special representative of the president of the African Commission for the Great Lakes Region, Sghir Said, assured that his organization will strengthen cooperation with the CIRGL, in order to continue working so that the region can develop its full potential economic.
He mentioned that the security problem and humanitarian crisis in Eastern DRC, which has been going on for some time, needs an urgent solution to enable the effective implementation of the programs included in the CIRGL Covenant on security, stability and development in the region.
On the occasion, the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region, Huang Xia, defended the need for compliance with the implementation of the Pact for Security, Stability and Development of the Region, by the various bodies that make up the Regional Interministerial Committee (CRIM).
He highlighted that peace and development cannot be effective, as it is clear that the primacy of political solutions continues to be the basis of the sustainable solution of conflicts as a driver of regional integration. LDN/ART/DOJ
