PREVIEW
Kallas wants to work with AU to support beleaguered multilateral bodies
The European Union may not be putting anything new on the table but it ‘is the partner Africa can rely on’, the EU High Representative on Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas told African counterparts at a foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Wednesday (22 May).
Her remarks proved prescient hours later when United States President Donald Trump ambushed South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office.
‘The will to do more is strong,’ Kallas said after the meeting, adding that both sides were committed to greater collaboration on critical raw materials, Artificial Intelligence and mobility. The EU also wants to encourage more African countries to follow the lead of South Africa and agree Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships – where the EU offers funding for green hydrogen and other clean energy technologies in exchange for access to supplies (AC Vol 66 No 9, Blitzed by Trump tariffs, can Africa and Europe agree on trade? &Vol 66 No 6, Targeted by Trump – Africa and Europe draw closer).
The joint EU-African Union ministerial meeting was billed as a stock-taking exercise by EU officials. Ahead of the meeting, they briefed that new policy announcements were not expected and that talks would focus on preparation for an EU-AU summit later this year. A date has still not been set for the summit, which officials say will be held in Africa.
A note of interest came from Kallas’s remarks both during the roundtable discussion and afterwards to the press that the two blocs need to work together to support multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and United Nations, with the latter facing particularly strong financial headwinds.
‘We represent 40% of the world’s votes in the UN,’ she said.
Though the European Commission says that it supports the aims of UN Secretary-General António Guterres to reform the UN, officials are aware of African concerns about the mandate of the Task Force led by Under-Secretary-General Guy Ryder. It has recommended a 20% cut to the UN’s headcount as well as the merging of a cluster of agencies into four organisations: Peace and Security, Humanitarian Affairs, Sustainable Development and Human Rights.
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