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Zimbabwe Not Excluded From EU-Africa Summit

Zimbabwe Not Excluded From EU-Africa Summit
Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007

By Oupa Segalwe
BuaNews (Tshwane), Pretoria
April 15, 2007

Zimbabwe will not be excluded from the Europe Union (EU) - Africa Summit to be held in Lisbon despite the EU's sanctions on the troubled state. South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said Friday that Zimbabwe, as one of the 53 member states of the African Union (AU), will be part of the summit to be held in December.

She was responding to journalists following her meeting with Portuguese counterpart Luis Amado, in which they discussed bilateral political and economic issues. "If Europe is meeting us (AU) at that level, it cannot dismember us. It's not about insisting that, one attends, that the other does not. "We want to co-operate with the EU as it is known.

"We can't say we want to co-operate with the EU, but not quite with Portugal. That will not be the EU, it will be something else, Dr Dlamini-Zuma said.

In February, the EU renewed its sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's government for another year due to the economic and human rights situation in that country.

The sanctions, which were first implemented three years ago, include a ban on Mr Mugabe and other government officials from traveling to EU countries.

The summit, which was supposed to have taken place in 2003 was indefinitely postponed due to opposition from some EU nations who did not want Mr Mugabe to attend the event as a result of the situation in his country.

Dr Dlamini-Zuma said the significance of the summit should not be reduced by differences between the EU and one country.

Dr Amado said the issue of sanctions on Zimbabwe should be separated from the summit.

"The issue of sanctions is one issue; the summit is one other issue ... we need to structure for the future a strategic partnership with the African Union to promote the interest of both continents.

"We should not compound strategic partnerships... because there is a problem with different countries, this is not compatible with what we have at stake," Dr Amado said.

Dr Dlamini-Zuma said South Africa was looking forward to the summit, which will take place in a period when Portugal would have assumed duties as the President of the EU.

"Europe and Africa are two neighbouring continents that have historic obligation to continue to work together. So, the summit will assist in working out a road map for our future cooperation," she said.

Other than discussing conditions and important points of the agenda for the summit, the meeting also touched:

- The South Africa - European strategic partnership;

- United Nations Reform and South Africa's tenure as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council; and

- Conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction in Africa.

Labels: EU, SUMMIT, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 2:52 PM