by Joseph Ngwawi – SANF 06 No 105
Cooperation between Africa and South America will be on the agenda when leaders from the two continents meet in Nigeria on 30 November for an inaugural summit.
Twelve South American countries will join 53 countries in Africa to discuss areas of mutual cooperation and understanding that would rapidly facilitate strategic development in the two regions.
There will be a roundtable session where the leaders will discuss partnership requirements, current international affairs as well as the institutional and other requirements of both sides.
This will be an interactive session that will afford leaders from both continents the chance to propose options and directions, according to a notice from the African Union (AU) who are the organisers of the summit.
The outcome and conclusions will feed into the working documents and outcome of the summit.
The summit will be the largest high-level interaction between leaders from the two continents which share a common destiny as key partners for South-South cooperation.
It will present an excellent opportunity for Africa to broaden its network as well as increasing business prospects between members of the AU and the South American Community of Nations (SACN).
Formally established in 2004, the SACN has taken the lead in promoting dialogue with other developing regions, and in 2005 it started this process by organising the first South America-Arab League summit in Brasilia, Brazil.
Mechanisms are already in place to carry out follow-up strategies on an action plan developed by that forum.
The SACN is a free trade zone uniting two existing free-trade organisations – Mercosur and the Andean Community. It aims to eliminate tariffs for non-sensitive products by 2014 and sensitive products by 2019.
Complete integration between the Andean Community and Mercosur into the South American Community of Nations is expected by 2007.
The organisation comprises Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Paraguay, Peruvia, Suriname, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Current interaction between the two continents has been limited to bilateral cooperation between South American countries such as Brazil and selected AU member states such as Angola and Mozambique.
Brazil is a key trading partner for Angola and Mozambique, which countries it has also assisted to strengthen their capabilities in medical research.
The summit will be modelled along the lines of the EU-Africa Summit and the China-Africa Summit, in which Africa explores areas of cooperation with the European Union and China, respectively.
The last China-Africa Summit was held in Beijing in early November.
The EU-Africa Summit is expected to take place in Lisbon in 2007.
