The European Union and South Africa on Monday signed a new agreement aimed at strengthening political ties and vowed to step up cooperation in migration and climate change.
”This new action plan leads to a new dimension in relations between the EU and South Africa,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after a meeting with his South African counterpart, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Discussions also focused on the future status of Serbia’s breakaway region of Kosovo. South Africa is a temporary member of the United Nations Security Council, which is tasked with drawing up a resolution on Kosovo.
EU diplomats said the bloc had tried hard to remove South African reservations regarding a UN proposal to give Kosovo supervised independence, arguing that the move would not constitute a precedent for other independence-seeking regions in the world but represent a ”unique solution for a unique European problem”.
Dlamini-Zuma said South Africa is ”now in a position to make up our mind”.
Under the new pact, the 27-member EU and South Africa will hold regular meetings twice a year, said Steinmeier, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
A new EU-Africa partnership deal will be adopted at a summit in Lisbon in December, Steinmeier said.
Portugal, which takes over the EU presidency on July 1, wants to make better relations with Africa a priority of its term at the bloc’s helmet.
The planned EU-Africa strategy aims to strengthen political ties between the two continents in a wide range of areas, including peace, security, development and human rights.
Dlamini-Zuma also said that the political crisis in Zimbabwe should not stop the planned EU-Africa summit from going ahead. ”The relationship between the EU and Africa is too important to be reduced to one issue,” she said, adding that Africa is ”a continent of 54 countries and should not be allowed to be held at ransom by one country.”
After holding the first summit with Africa in 2003 in Cairo, the EU delayed the second meeting indefinitely because of opposition from some European nations over the participation of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, who is accused of violating human rights.
The travel ban on Mugabe has stopped the EU from pressing ahead with plans to hold the summit with African leaders.
However, Portugal has now said it hopes to convene an EU-Africa summit in the autumn when it takes over the rotating EU presidency from Germany.
The EU has a long-standing ban on visits to the 27-member bloc by Mugabe and members of his Cabinet. Recent violence against opposition leaders and human rights abuses in the country are causing further concern in Europe. — Sapa-dpa