The president of the Republic of Congo said central African nations are focused on using their oil resources to draw business investment, rather than ”passively waiting” for new aid promised by industrialised countries.
”It’s an issue of partnership, and not of aid,” President Denis Sassou-Nguesso said on Thursday during a speech before the Africa Society. ”This is the appeal we make to all our partners.”
Sassou-Nguesso and nine other African presidents will meet Friday with President George Bush. They mostly hail from Africa’s oil-rich Gulf of Guinea; Besides Sassou-Nguesso, Bush will also see the leaders of Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe.
Their agenda includes economic development and political stability in central Africa. The two concepts go hand in hand, Sassou-Nguesso said.
”We have … tremendous natural resources. Oil. Timber. Iron ore. Diamonds. Potassium. Coffee. Cocoa. Water. Sunshine,” Sassou-Nguesso said. ”We are sure the best way to consolidate peace is to move resolutely ahead and do what is necessary to ensure economic development is sustainable.”
Sassou-Nguesso deflected questions on whether the United States is pursuing oil in Central Africa as an alternative supply ahead of a showdown with Iraq. But he said American oil companies have been producing oil in the Gulf of Guinea and are ”delighted of the results.”
”We are convinced we will continue this cooperation with the US companies,” Sassou-Nguesso said. ”I am sure that the development of oil research will continue in Congo and in the Guinean Gulf.”
During their June summit, the world’s largest industrialised nations committed to devote to Africa half of the increased amounts they put into foreign aid. They also promised to help establish an African peacekeeping force to address ongoing conflicts throughout the continent.
”We are now waiting for the concrete results of all this,” Sassou-Nguesso said. ”But we are not passively waiting.”
Republic of Congo is trying to emerge from ”a number of years of upheaval,” he said, to build a modern state ”which will of course operate under the rule of law, in the respect of human rights and good governance.” – Sapa-AP