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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 April 2000 Issue No. 476 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 April 2000 Issue No. 476
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Summit Features Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Bolstering a joint determination
By Khaled Dawoud
President Hosni Mubarak's schedule was very busy throughout the duration of the two-day Africa-Europe Summit, which ended on Tuesday. As well as attending at least part of each of the summit's three main sessions, he held scores of meetings with both African and European leaders. He also found time to hold talks with US Defence Secretary William Cohen, and to discuss the Middle East peace process by telephone with Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad.
A few hours before the opening of the summit on Monday, Mubarak met with several European leaders, including Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, whose country currently holds the chair of the European Union. He also held talks with Algerian President and current Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika to coordinate positions ahead of the summit.
Since the election of President Bouteflika a year ago, the Egyptian and Algerian leaders have established a strong bilateral relationship which has greatly improved ties between the two countries. Mubarak and Bouteflika walked into the opening session side by side and, as the conference closed, hugged each other warmly, to the applause of the assembled African leaders.
From top: Mubarak, Ghaddafi and Bashir discuss national reconciliation in Sudan; Mubarak reviews the proceedings with current EU chair Antonio Gutteres; a bilateral dialogue for Mubarak and Chirac touching on the Middle East peace process; Schroeder and Mubarak discuss Germany's intentions regarding debt relief; Mubarak meets with African leaders to agree the final communique; and Mrs Mubarak and Mrs Moussa play host to African first ladies and foreign ministers wives
After delivering the opening speech (see text), Mubarak held talks with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Presidential sources said that in his talks with Chirac, Mubarak discussed both the current status of the stalled Syrian-Israeli peace talks and the likely situation in Lebanon should Israel choose to honour its pledge to withdraw from the occupied southern section by July. Mubarak also briefed Chirac on the results of his visit to Washington, which ended only two days before the opening of the Africa-Europe summit. Both Egypt and France believe that an Israeli pull-out from Lebanon would be a positive development, especially if it took place within the framework of a comprehensive peace agreement including Syria.
After what were reported to be intensive efforts by Egyptian diplomacy, a meeting was held on Monday between Algeria's Bouteflika, Morocco's King Mohamed VI, Tunisian President Zein Al-Abidin bin Ali and Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi, thus reviving hopes that the frozen Arab Maghreb Union would be re-activated.
However, Algerian diplomats denied reports that a bilateral meeting took place between Bouteflika and King Mohamed, although the two exchanged pleasantries and shook hands warmly following the opening session. Ties between Algeria and Morocco have been strained for many years because of a dispute over the Western Sahara and Algeria's reported support of the Polisario Front. Morocco considers the Western Sahara an integral part of its territory.
The Algerian president also held a brief meeting with Chirac, indicating further improvement in ties between the two countries.
Another significant meeting took place on Tuesday involving Mubarak, Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and Libya's Gaddafi. The meeting was devoted to discussing ways and means of reaching a compromise between Khartoum and expatriate Sudanese opposition groups within the framework of an Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative. The three-way meeting apparently had immediate results, as later the same day Al-Bashir held a surprise meeting with former Sudanese president and leading figure in the Democratic Unionist Party, Ahmed Al-Merghani. The former president is the brother of Mohamed Al-Merghani, chairman of the opposition umbrella organisation, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The NDA leader had rejected Bashir's appeals for the Sudanese opposition groups to finally return home. Tuesday evening, Bashir also met with former Sudanese prime minister and leader of the Ummah Party, Sadeq Al-Mahdi. Al-Mahdi had previously announced that dozens of leading Ummah party figures would be returning to Khartoum today (Thursday) to re-activate the previously banned party, but said that no decision had yet been taken as to when he personally would return to Sudan.
After meeting with Bashir and Gaddafi, Mubarak met with the presidents of Gambia, Djibouti, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Togo. He had met earlier with the presidents of Chad and Burkina Faso.
In statements to Egyptian television made shortly before the end of the summit, Mubarak affirmed that the meeting had been "very successful." "It represents a step forward, because never before has a European-African meeting been held at such a level," he said. Mubarak added, "The Europeans listened to the frank views expressed [by African leaders] on all problems, including the African debt which is a major obstacle to progress. These are matters which were not necessarily clear [to the European leaders] previously. The Europeans used to read reports about these problems, but now they have heard about them directly from [African] officials."
Mubarak said that the European leaders responded positively to African demands, pointing to the initiatives announced by Germany and France during the summit to forgive commercial debts owed by the poorest African countries. German Chancellor Gerhart Schroeder announced the cancellation of all German commercial debts, while Chirac declared a 90 per cent cancellation.
Agreeing with all the other African leaders who took part in the summit, Mubarak said that priority should be given to the external debt issue. He said that Europe buys raw materials from African countries very cheaply, and then sells manufactured products back to them at high prices. "How are they going to repay their debts?" Mubarak asked. "How can a country like flood-worn Mozambique repay its debt? It needs aid and should not be expected to repay its debt. Many other African countries cannot afford to repay theirs either."
Asked whether European countries had laid down preconditions for building better ties with Africa, Mubarak replied, "Europe should encourage us first by cancelling our debts and by starting to help with the development and reform effort."
Commenting on Europe's demand that African countries should take serious steps to improve their human rights record, Mubarak said, "When you talk to people [in Africa] about human rights, their answer would be: feed me first. We have to be realistic and not let ourselves be immersed in academic talk. We have to deal with realities and then find solutions to our problems." The Egyptian leader also pointed to one significant result which had emerged from the summit -- the agreement which African leaders had extracted from their European counterparts to hold these summits regularly, every three years, so as to follow up on the decisions reached.
In his remarks to the summit's closing session, Mubarak said, "Discussions over the past two days were the starting point for a new phase marked with a genuine joint determination to promote cooperation between Africa and Europe." He added, "We hope that the conclusion of this summit would mark the commencement of a real partnership and we look forward to taking serious and immediate action to turn this partnership into a reality."
Mubarak concluded by saying, "This is a historic moment, in which we all witness the birth of a new partnership, whereby both parties seek to serve joint interests, so that the partnership may contribute to the formation of the new world economic order."
