It is a pleasure to be with you today. I would like to thank you for the honour of allowing me to address you. A warm thank you to President Hichilema for his gracious hospitality in your beautiful country. And a special thanks to Macky Sall and Moussa Faki for their kind invitation.

Exactly five months ago, we, European and African leaders, gathered in Brussels for an exceptional Summit. Together, we decided on a new paradigm, a new software for our strategic partnership, a software anchored in the principles of mutual respect, common interests, shared values and sincere equality between partners.

We share the same ambition: to build together piece by piece a common space of peace, security, prosperity and progress. This is our common promise; this must be our common duty to the young generations of Africa and Europe.

And now we must follow through on our commitments and that is precisely what we have begun to do together, through respectful and quality partnerships. The goal of our partnership is to create ties, not dependencies, strong bonds to face challenges together.

Let us be concrete. A few months ago, we had diverging positions on the intellectual property of vaccines. In Brussels we promised each other to find a solution together before the summer, and we succeeded! A special thanks to our dear sister Dr Ngozi: under her leadership, we Africans and Europeans together struck the balance between intellectual property, scientific innovation and universal access to technology.

It is the same spirit that guides us in the development of vaccine and drug production capacities on African soil, and projects are already underway in Senegal, Rwanda, South Africa and Ghana.

This ambition is not limited to "fill and finish": the latest and most promising technologies are being transferred. We are working with you to get these vaccines purchased internationally, through GAVI/COVAX, for instance.

You have decided to set up the Continental Free Trade Area. Boosting trade and economic integration, this is common sense and this is also the path chosen many years ago by the European Union to build the internal market. It is therefore no surprise that we are ready to support.

Ladies and gentlemen, very dear friends, you have made the choice of economic integration and as President Hichilema perfectly said last night at dinner, our common goal is to promote prosperity through investment, through economic cooperation, through trade, not to share poverty, but to share prosperity equally. It is in this spirit that the Global Gateway project, which was presented in Brussels five months ago, aims to mobilize 150 billion euros to implement investments that promote and support this capacity for prosperity and of economic development.

Let's be concrete: electrical interconnections, for example between Zambia and Tanzania. We will have spoken about it, Mr. President, between Angola and Namibia, the DRC and Zambia, massive investments in the gigantic potential of renewable energies, such as, for example, the development of clean hydrogen in Namibia and elsewhere. Investments in road and rail transport to connect and bring people together have been initiated. The project, for example Dakar-Abidjan or Mombassa-Kisangani. These are some of the concrete examples for which there is, for each of us, a requirement of responsibility. Let's be demanding

All of this was perfectly said by President Hichilema a few moments ago. Security and prosperity, peace and prosperity are two sides of the same coin, I would like to say are two sides of the same mask. Peace and stability are of course the necessary soil to allow economic and social development and political dialogue. The exchanges of analyses, the modest awareness also that there are rarely, perhaps even none at all, ready-made, ready-to-use solutions, and the awareness that each situation requires adapted, tailor-made solutions. These are the principles of common sense, it seems to me, which should inspire our collective intelligence. I want to say it with solemnity and with loyalty: the European Union is ready to support African efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts as well as to consolidate peace whenever you have expressed the wish to do so. This is the meaning, for example, of the program approved by the European Union for Africa of 600 million euros under the European peace support facility which can be and which are being mobilized, for example in Mozambique, in Somalia or in the Sahel are just a few examples.

I stand before you at a special moment in the history of the world. President Moussa Faki said it perfectly: we are facing difficulties, crises, challenges, they are multifaceted. On the night of February 23 to 24, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, which has one of the largest nuclear arsenals, fired 1,600 missiles and rockets in a few hours at the population of a sovereign state of 40 millions of inhabitants. This imperialist war of another century is a flagrant violation of international law. It is the very principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity set forth, I would like to say even sanctuarized, in the Charter of the United Nations which are brutally violated.

Historians will write history, but it is up to leaders and politicians to draw the necessary and useful lessons today. I want to share with you this sincere conviction: history has shown it, the best bulwark against brutal unilateralism and the temptation of the law of the fittest is the promotion of multilateralism and international cooperation, is the best antidote to war, it is the best guarantee for peace and prosperity. And it is precisely this spirit of cooperation and mutual respect which is the beating heart of the African Union, which is the beating heart of the European Union. This war, of course, is testing the European continent, the security of the European continent. Certainly in the weeks and months to come, the energy challenges for Europe and for the rest of the world will be colossal. We all know it here, and you know it better than anyone, that the consequences of this war are global and extremely serious.

The African peoples, and this is unfair, are also direct victims of this conflict. In truth, through this war, a cluster munition has been unpinned against global food security. The facts are stubborn, it is warships blocking access to the Black Sea for the transport of agricultural products coming for example from Ukraine or for fertilizers. These are fields of wheat transformed into battlefields by tanks and mines. It is the theft of agricultural products and the destruction of infrastructure that are the direct cause of this food crisis which is worsening before our eyes. And I want to say this with solemnity: the European Union has not imposed any sanctions against Russian agricultural products or fertilizers. I also say this with the same solemnity: the European Union is working hard to calibrate our decisions to avoid negative effects that we absolutely do not want. On the contrary, we are at work with all the partners to ensure that we do not remain idly by, to ensure that we act in a concrete way to overcome together this obstacle and this challenge which strikes you and which strikes us. .

First, we are committed to mobilizing urgent, humanitarian aid for vulnerable populations. Let me be concrete with you. Over €1 billion in the Sahel and Lake Chad regions; €600 million for the Horn of Africa; 225 million to help our partners in North Africa, and we have just announced an additional 600 million euros for all countries in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific region. This is a first point.

Second element: I was able to speak, Mr President Sall, with you and with other colleagues a few weeks ago, on the sidelines of the G7 meeting. Perhaps we should allow ourselves to be inspired by the success of the projects that we have carried out together in terms of the production of vaccines on African soil, in order to act and redouble our efforts to support agricultural production in Africa and to ensure that access to inputs, including fertilizers, is a reality. It is on this subject that I think we should be able to sit down to table immediately, show shared leadership to transform this idea, if you wish, into a concrete operational project which could be exemplary, which could contribute to responding to this challenge we face. Africa's agricultural sovereignty and Africa's interests are also in the interests of the European Union. I would like to say to Macky Sall, he knows it, that when he mentioned these striking figures a few days ago according to which Africa uses nearly eight times less fertilizer per hectare than the European Union, these are figures which should lead us to ponder, particularly at European level.

Third element of course, we are committed to supporting international initiatives within the framework of the G7. We must also support this project led by the French presidency of the European Union, the FARM project, which mobilizes concrete capacities, as you know, to act together.

Finally and above all, I want to say it here too, we are totally behind the efforts made by the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, to open maritime corridors across the Black Sea as quickly as possible to allow finally, as soon as possible to export these millions of tonnes of wheat, cereals, grain which are blocked in Ukraine and Russia, to also free up the capacity to restore the supply chains which are necessary, in particular for the fertilizers. This is an issue that is vital and we actively support, without reserve, the efforts of António Guterres on this subject.

As you can see, it is in concrete terms that our partnership must take shape and develop. There is another thought that I want to share with you before I conclude. When Africa and Europe want it, together we can be a powerful force. When we act with complicity, with complicity, with confidence in international forums. For example, the compromise at the Brussels summit on the role of gas in energy transitions, this compromise that we drew up together by listening to each other, by mobilizing collective intelligence, by understanding the priorities of each others and the will to bring the points of view closer to make them converge in a strong, ambitious and useful way, well, this compromise that we drew up together during the conference in Brussels, found itself taken up as it is, exactly as it is, in the declaration of the G7 a few days ago and I believe it, which will inspire the work in preparing COP 27 which will take place in Egypt. We can count, I am certain, on strong cooperation between Europe and Africa, to reconcile both climate ambition with the legitimate need for Africa to rationally mobilize its resources, including of hydrocarbons, for the benefit of development. And there is, it is true, it must be said, a profound injustice: that Africa, which is responsible for less than 3% of the production of greenhouse gases, would be prevented from mobilizing even a part of its resources to close the energy gap.

I conclude: Africa and Europe together represent unprecedented development potential for the 21st century. Together, Africa and Europe, we have the dynamism, we have the talent, we have the knowledge, we have the ingenuity for more prosperity and for more stability. Together, and if we want to, we can unite and gather this power so that our people can share in the benefits. Again, not sharing poverty, but sharing prosperity. And it is for this reason that I would like here, with solemnity, to say that I unreservedly support President Macky Sall's plea on behalf of the African Union to guarantee Africa a seat in the G20. He does It is only fair that the African continent has its full place and is a stakeholder in the decisions that impact and shape it. Together, Africa and Europe can constitute an arc of peace, prosperity, cooperation for this 21st century, I believe it, I am intimately convinced of it in my flesh and in my heart, our strategic partnership is more essential than ever. It is an offer which is positive, which is sincere, which is fair, turned towards the future. Leadership, mutual respect and trust can be the backbone for this partnership. Leadership, mutual respect and trust are the soul of this strategic partnership. Thank you for your attention. of cooperation for the 21st century, I believe it, I am intimately convinced of it in my flesh and in my heart, our strategic partnership is more essential than ever. It is an offer which is positive, which is sincere, which is fair, turned towards the future. Leadership, mutual respect and trust can be the backbone for this partnership. Leadership, mutual respect and trust are the soul of this strategic partnership. Thank you for your attention. of cooperation for the 21st century, I believe it, I am intimately convinced of it in my flesh and in my heart, our strategic partnership is more essential than ever. It is an offer which is positive, which is sincere, which is fair, turned towards the future. Leadership, mutual respect and trust can be the backbone for this partnership. Leadership, mutual respect and trust are the soul of this strategic partnership. Thank you for your attention. mutual respect and trust are the soul of this strategic partnership. Thank you for your attention. mutual respect and trust are the soul of this strategic partnership. Thank you for your attention.

Source: EUROPEAN COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION