President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi travelled to the Belgian capital, Brussels, on Tuesday to participate in the 6th European Union-African Union Summit.
The EU-AU Summit is scheduled to be held on 17 and 18 February, with leaders focusing on joint priorities for the two sides’ common future.
The summit will be held under the title ‘Africa and Europe: Two Continents with a Common Vision until 2030.’
The first session of the African-European Summit was held in Cairo in 2000, which witnessed the establishment of partnership mechanisms between the two sides through the ‘Cairo Action Plan’.
The EU is one of the most prominent international partners with which the AU has always been keen to strengthen ties with, especially with regard to development files and the maintenance of international peace and security as well as the continuous consultation between the two sides on how to address common challenges.
Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Rady stated that Al-Sisi intends to focus during the Summit on various issues of concern to African countries, especially with regard to strengthening international efforts to facilitate their integration into the global economy and to emphasise the need to provide effective support to these countries in their quest to achieve the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by transferring technology to them, fostering foreign investment, and enabling them to increase reliance on renewable energy sources.
The president is also expected to review Egypt’s preparations to host the next United Nations’ Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP 27) in November, and the country’s efforts in this context to produce balanced and achievable results.
Egypt also seeks to push towards crystallising a common vision to support and finance the African continent during the coronavirus pandemic while facilitating access and equitable distribution of the various technologies related to the pandemic, especially with regard to the production of vaccines.
The programme of the president’s visit to Belgium includes holding summit talks with King of Belgium Philippe Leopold and Prime Minister of Belgium Alexandre de Croo to discuss ways to enhance bilateral relations in a way that achieves the common interests of the two friendly countries and peoples as well as mutual consultation and coordination on a number of regional and international files of common interest.
Al-Sisi is also scheduled to hold a meeting with the elite of the Belgian business community to discuss ways to advance cooperation in the economic, trade, and investment fields between the two sides.
Furthermore, the president will meet — on the side-lines of the summit — with the leaders of the EU as well as a number of heads of state and government in order to discuss promoting bilateral cooperation frameworks and consulting on various regional and international issues.
