Why has President Hichilema travelled when the Summit has been cancelled?
…Kingdom hosting emergency summit meetings to tackle Gaza crisis, rescheduled 5th Africa-Arab Summit…
By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
●The Saudi Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday the postponement of the 5th Arab-African Summit due to the current situation in Gaza.
● instead Saudi Arabia is hosting Emergency Arab and Islamic summits that are being held during the same period in Riyadh on Saturday and Sunday respectively to tackle the Gaza conflict.
● It explained that the postponement of the Africa-Arab Summit was to “ensure that political events in the region did not affect the Arab-African partnership,” and a new date will be scheduled later
● The ministry said the decision was taken in coordination with the Secretariat of the Arab League and the African Union Commission.
PARTNERSHIP SUMMITS
There are external partnerships between the African Union and organisations, regions or single countries.
The Africa Union Commission coordinates what are called partnership meetings.
We have one of the oldest partnership meetings, the Africa Union and Japan &World Bank, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).
We also have the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) which is an official forum between the People’s Republic of China and Africa.
We also have the European Union–African Union Summit.
We also have a partnership with the Africa South America Cooperation (ASACOF).
We have Africa Union Summits( Africa and a single country partnership) with Russia, USA, India, Turkey, Korea and Saudi Arabia.
The Meeting that has been rescheduled was between Africa and the League of Arab States(LAS) and is the fifth session and was to be hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh.
The 5th session of the Arab-African summit has been rescheduled to allow Saudi Arabia host emergency summits of Arab and Islamic nations to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
● It appears that despite the cancellation at short notice, a few African Heads of States have arrived in Riyadhi and Saudi Arabia may use the opportunity( save diplomatic embarrasment) to host the long awaited African Union -Saudi Arabia inaugural Meeting that has been rescheduled since 2019.
Africa Union meetings and single country partnerships have recently come under fire.
You may remember a recent viral video where Kenyan President, William Ruto was speaking against Africa and single-country partnerships where 54 Heads of States parade themselves before a single host President. He called for Africa Union to be sending representatives.
The President proceeded to travel to a cancelled meeting I guess with a few other arrivals will be turned to the Africa Union-Saudi Arabia inaugural meeting.
