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Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Monday called for the reshaping and democratisation of the institutional architecture of multilateralism, in particular of the bodies of the United Nations and of the Bretton Woods institutions, in order to respond to the current geopolitical reality.
He added that Mozambique lays special stress on the role and place of Africa in world politics and the world economy, and its right to access the variety of development options that multilateralism offers.
He was speaking in Nairobi during the summit of the heads of state and government of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP), the group of 79 developing countries which have partnership agreements with the European Union.
Turning to the current international migration crisis, particularly from Africa to Europe, Nyusi criticised the reactions and interpretations based on “a simplistic vision which disregards the complexity of reality”.
“We favour the creation of local conditions so that there may be opportunities for Africans in Africa, through investment and economic activities that generate decent jobs, particularly for young people”, he said.
For Nyusi, these steps must involve the prevalence of conditions for peace, security and stability, which assumes respect for sovereign rights, and the duty of the United Nations to punish, after due consideration, any intervention in a sovereign country.
“We want multilateralism to defend the interests of each sovereign state”, he insisted. That should be achieved “through mutually advantageous partnership agreements which offer opportunities for growth, progress and well-being to all our countries”.
Nyusi stressed that African countries want and need to reaffirm themselves as strategic partners, and holders of precious natural resources who are seeking financing to exploit them in good faith, on the basis of the laws of international trade, to the benefit of development.
But he recognised that “if we do not know how to value our comparative advantages, and if we do not know how to defend our national interest and the paths to pursue it, then there will be no support that leads us to progress”.
Nyusi pledged that Mozambique will continue contributing to an ACP that will be “robust, stronger and making a positive impact in promoting the development of our country and of the brother countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific”.
He urged ACP member states to discourage “unilateralist speeches” which take advantage of the challenges of the new world order and of uncertainties to hollow out the role and place of the institutions of global governance,
“The growth we want is endogenous and sustainable. It should contribute to us rewriting a history of Africa and its relationship with other continents, countries and people, as a partnership resting on mutually advantageous principles, values and policies”, Nyusi declared.
In this way “we shall emerge from the vicious cycle of the past and its narratives to a phase of visionary African leaderships, which generate the great transformations we want on the continent, anchored in each form of cooperation, as the ACP group is”.
Nyusi recalled that during the 44 years of the ACP Group’s existence the world strategic scenario that gave rise to the group has evolved rapidly, demanding from ACP members a great capacity for response, adaptation and above all, for reaffirmation.
“We could mention, for example, the role played by this group in the negotiations that culminated in the signing of the Paris agreement on climate change in 2015”, he said.
He praised the cohesion shown by the ACP group, but believed the time has come for the ACP to launch an internal reflection on the future of the organisation and its role in the international arena.
The summit, the ACP’s ninth, is being held under the slogan: “A transformed ACP: Committed to Multilateralism”.
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