European and African leaders are meeting in Angola for a summit focused on trade and renewing the relationship between African and European countries that have been tested by growing influence of Russia, China and the United States.
Continuing his African tour, French President Emmanuel Macron is in Luanda to join nearly 80 EU and African leaders at a two-day summit that marks 25 years of EU-African Union relations, which are fraying.
The EU is the leading supplier of direct foreign investment to Africa and its leading trading partner.
Yet China, the US and Russia are gaining influence, as some African countries turn away from their former colonial rulers, notably France.
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“Relations between Africa and Europe need to be revisited,” Pascal Saint-Amans, a professor at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland who in Luanda, told RFI.
“Economic exchanges for a long time happened in a colonial relationship, but I believe that with the overall shift in global geopolitics, we now have a relationship that is more on an equal footing, less paternalistic, which is a very good thing.”
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The seventh EU-African Union gathering comes on the heels of a G20 meeting in South Africa where a US boycott underscored geopolitical fractures.
“The challenges we face today – climate change, digital transformation, irregular migration, conflicts and insecurity – know no borders. The response to this multipolar world must be multipolar cooperation,” EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa said in a joint statement Monday.
“Together, Africa and Europe can lead the way,” they said, adding the two blocs aimed to shape “a fairer, greener, and more secure world based on shared values and mutual respect”.
Focus on trade
Tackling illegal migration to Europe and security cooperation are on the summit agenda, as is a push to grant Africa more of a voice in global governance bodies.
But boosting trade is likely the top priority, as the EU seeks to secure critical minerals needed for its green transition and to reduce its dependency on China for minerals used in electronic goods.
In 2021, the EU launched a massive infrastructure project, the Global Gateway, intended to counter China’s growing influence, with half of the €300 billion invested in Africa by 2027.
A key part of the strategy is the Lobito corridor, a railway project in partnership with the US, that passes through Angola, connecting mineral-rich areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to the Atlantic coast.
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The EU is the leading supplier of foreign direct investment to the continent and its top commercial counterpart. Trade in goods and services hit €467 billion in 2023, according to Brussels.
What are Africa’s economic needs amid rising competition between China and the West?
Humanitarian aid
Another part of redefining the relationship is the EU’s humanitarian role in conflicts on the African continent.
The EU has sometimes become the main donor, after aid cuts by the US.
“We feel that the EU is also putting more emphasis on economic and security questions, rather than on democracy and human rights,” Danny Singoma, a member of the national consultation framework of Congolese civil society, told RFI.
“When you challenge the EU, they say ‘No, we do not interfere in internal affairs; We only help on the economic and humanitarian level.’ And that is what we want to change.”
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Shift to Ukraine
EU leaders may be distracted from African issues by Ukraine and US President Donald Trump’s draft plan to stop Russia’s war, that the EU sees as tilted in favour of Moscow.
Some EU leaders will meet to discuss Ukraine on the sidelines of the Luanda summit on Monday, with others dialling in via video conference.
Europeans said they were not involved in crafting the original plan and released a counter-poposal that would ease some of the proposed territorial concessions and include a NATO-style security guarantee from the US for Ukraine if it is attacked.
(with newswires)
