Portugal: Country at AU summit to support EU on Africa security effort

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Portugal: Country at AU summit to support EU on Africa security effort

12:02 CAT | 16 Feb 2023

Photo: Twitter / @JoaoCravinho

Portugal’s foreign affairs minister said on Wednesday that Portugal, represented by the Prime Minister at the African Union summit, wants to play a pivotal role in “helping the European Union to understand what is changing on the African continent”.

Portugal is represented in Ethiopia by the Prime Minister and by the head of diplomacy, and is taking on “this pivotal role” which “is to help the European Union understand what is changing on the African continent and how best to adapt its approach to support peace, security and stability in Africa, which are of direct interest” to Brussels, João Gomes Cravinho told Lusa from Addis Ababa, where he began a series of bilateral meetings on Wednesday as part of an event that will culminate with the summit of heads of state and government on 18 and 19 February.

“We are very keen to underline within the European space this direct interest of the European Union and, at the same time, also interested in identifying the necessary adjustments, in political terms, of the European Union, to help pacify the African continent,” the Portuguese minister said.

We must “not forget that the flows of refugees and illegal migrants arriving in the European Union often arrive as a result of situations of war, of violence, which prevent them from continuing to live in their countries in Africa”, so “there is a direct interest” in the security of the continent, said Gomes Cravinho, who has as of today a fortnight of bilateral meetings. Portugal’s support for the EU may also involve replicating some cooperation models in the area of security. “I am thinking here, for example, of the way we work in training missions, we have a training mission that is very successful in northern Mozambique and others that have not been successful in the Central African Republic and Mali,” he exemplified.

From these cases, it is necessary to “learn lessons” and therefore Portugal is “quite well placed” to play this role and already “has a certain tradition of participating in summits of the African Union”, but never at the level of a head of government.

“This is recognition by the African Union of what Portugal is: a bridge between Africa and Europe,” Gomes Cravinho said, recalling Lisbon’s “decades of work towards regional rapprochement”.

“We can see today that there is a certain urgency for Europeans and Africans to work together on various issues, particularly in the area of peace and security, the Gulf of Guinea, the Sahel, the Central African Republic, issues in which we are very involved and also very important here in the African Union,” the minister added.

Today, the African “security architecture” is “very fragile”, acknowledged the minister, who met on Wednesday with AU commissioner for peace and security, Bankole Adeoye.

Thank you @Bankole_Adeoye for the insightful and useful meeting this morning. Portugal is committed to a strong relationship with the #AfricanUnion, and especially on issues of peace and security. https://t.co/6Y6gu6SreH

— João Cravinho (@JoaoCravinho) February 15, 2023

From the commissioner, he heard the desire for “African solutions to African problems,” but also the request for “support from countries like Portugal and institutions such as the European Union” to pacification efforts.

In this regard, the AU is discussing a convention to prevent mercenaries in Africa, in order to prevent the presence, among others, of the Wagner Group, an organisation close to the Kremlin which has been operating in some African countries.

If this measure is approved it will “pave the way for a new approach to peace in countries like the Central African Republic or Mali”, he acknowledged.

About the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, “where several African countries are involved,” Gomes Cravinho argued that the parties “sit here at the negotiating table to find peaceful solutions to the problems that oppose these countries, but are also of an internal nature”.

This Thursday, “Portugal is one of the organisers [alongside Kenya and Mozambique ] of a conference on migration,” on the sidelines of the 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union, under the theme “The Climate Migration Nexus: How to Respond to Environmental Degradation, Protect People and Uphold the Potential of Migration”.

The event includes the Portuguese Foreign Minister, the Director-General of the International Organisation for Migration, António Vitorino; the AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Angola’s Josefa Sacko; and the Mozambican head of diplomacy, Verónica Macamo, among other guests.

The debate will be “very significant for many parts of the African continent that are affected by climate change which, in turn, also gives rise to situations of tension within countries and often conflict,” Cravinho explained.

Em África começa-se cedo. Casa cheia às 7 da manhã em Adis Abeba (4 em Lisboa) para um evento sobre migrações e clima, co-organizado por Portugal, Quénia e Moçambique, contando com a presença de António Vitorino @IOMchief. pic.twitter.com/ECaN3ioQ4R

— João Cravinho (@JoaoCravinho) February 16, 2023