Washington – The Chairperson of the African Union, Macky Sall, stressed Thursday in Washington that Africa wants to share five priorities of its agenda with the United States of America, with particular emphasis on combating terrorism.
While speaking at the Heads of State Summit on the sidelines of the U.S.AFRICA LEADERS SUMMIT, Macky Sall, who is also Senegal President, explained that the first priority of the African-American partnership is peacemaking, security and fighting terrorism across the world.
He expressed the hope that combating terrorism in Africa would form an integral part of the global fight against this scourge that constitutes a threat to international peace and security.
According to the AU Chairperson, African states expect a strong involvement of the US in this crucial issue, so that the United Nations (UN)’s Security Council may place the combat to terrorism in Africa in the same collective security mechanism framework of the UN Universal Charter.
He praised the North American President Joe Biden´s decision to support the participation of Africa as a permanent member of the G20 group as well as the UN Security Council.
According to Macky Sall, the second strategic partnership line has to do with climate change key points, sanitary crisis and the special drawing rights or suspension of debts incurred by African states.
The African leader requested an international solidarity towards debt forgiveness aiming to ensure the efforts of resilience and re-launching of African economies.
Regarding this issue, US President, Joe Biden, announced Thursday in Washington that his country is leading global efforts to carry out fair agreements in order to offer relief of the debt to global credits.
According to Joe Biden, his country is requesting the Congress to provide a credit of USD 21 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the objective to give necessary access to finance for low and middle income countries.
Therefore, on the sidelines of the strategic partnership with the USA, Macky Sall said that Africa has as a third action pillar the involvement of Americans in the construction of infrastructure such as roads, railway, power plants and digital infrastructure.
He noted that Africa needs USD 96 billion by 2030 to finance its needs and therefore requires a fair transition in competitive terms to have universal access to electricity, the lack of which affects more than 600 million Africans.
According to Macky Sall, another crucial pillar in the strategy of the cooperation is to overcome food sovereignty as the continent appealed to the US to adopt urgent measures to ease the access to fertilisers and other agricultural products.
During the meeting attended by President Joe Biden, the AU Chairperson expressed the will to work with the US Government to improve production in Africa based on a massive investment.
He added that Africa calls on the US to work together aiming to ensure fairest and peaceful global governance, having requested the lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe.
For about two decades, the United States of America has imposed finance, political, military and economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, as well as companies linked to the State.
The measure was due to the violent mass arrests of lands owned by white citizens, alleged electoral fraud and human rights violations by the former Head of State of that African country, Robert Mugabe, who died on 6 September 2019.
Until independence of the colonial government in 1980, Zimbabwe was considered one of the most promising economies in Africa.
Currently, the country is deficient in its health system, water supply, transport and public infrastructure.
In addition to the Heads of State Summit, which discussed strategic partnerships for Agenda 2063, the final day of the US-Africa Summit was marked by panel discussions, namely “Multilateral Partnerships with Africa for Global Gathering” and “Promoting Food Security and Food System Resilience.
The Washington Summit, an initiative of President Joe Biden, supported by the African Union, took place from 13 to 15 December, with the participation of more than 49 African leaders, including the Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, and several businesspeople.
During the first two days, several events were held, most notably the Youth Forum and the Eximbank Annual Congress, which had more than 100 participants.
On Wednesday, the Business Forum took place, a meeting in which the President of Angola intervened in the panel related to the theme “Building a Sustainable Future: Partnerships to Finance African Infrastructure and Energy Transition”.
