Africa “must speak with one voice” at the Security Council to influence the decisions of this United Nations (UN) organ or any other organ, Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, Ramtane Lamamra said Thursday in Oran.
“We believe that there is still more room for improvement to achieve our shared goal of Africa speaking with one common voice that is able to influence the decision-making process within the UN Security Council,” said Lamamra at the opening of the 8th High Level Seminar on Peace and Security in Africa.
“But for this to happen, we have no choice but to speak with one decisive and strong voice whether at the Security Council or any other forum. We need to renew our commitment to the values and ideals of panafricanism and act collectively to avoid any factor that may jeopardize the unity of our continental organization, the African Union,” he stressed.
“This High-Level Seminar, the first editions of which were hosted few years back here in this same city and premise, has since been institutionalized as a regular forum for collective reflection, exchange of views and sharing experiences, lessons learned and best practices for the sake of enabling our representatives within the UN’s most powerful organ to demonstrate the true spirit of African unity and solidarity in promoting African common positions on peace and security,” he continued.
“It translates indeed our engagement to redouble efforts to make Africa’s voice stronger at the international level, to ensure that its efforts are recognized and that its major concerns, strategic interests and reasonable perspectives are duly taken into account,” affirmed Lamamra.
“In a context marked by deterioration in the overall peace and security landscape, our continent is in need of a more prominent role of the African Union in the prevention and resolution of conflicts,” affirmed Lamamra.
Furthermore, “while projecting this effort at the international level, we should always aim to make multilateralism more advantageous to Africa by striving to end the marginalization of our continent within the international system, including the UN Security Council,” he said.
I am delighted to note that our collective engagement has started to bear fruit with the A3 growing considerably in stature and diplomatic capacity, and even in terms of composition as we have since last year a new member from the Caribbean region “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines” working in alliance with the A3, he said.
In our view, this panafrican endeavor entails that we first admit our own shortcomings and redouble efforts both upstream and downstream to translate into reality the vision enshrined in the agenda 2063 of “An Integrated, Prosperous and Peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena”.
This is the spirit in which my country, Algeria, is prepared to serve at the UN Security Council and make its contribution on behalf of the African Union, during the period 2024-2025, in full coordination with its African fellows within the Council and in line with the pertinent AU policy organs’ decisions.
I would like to seize this opportunity to reiterate our deep appreciation to the AU Member States that supported our candidature and pledge to do our best to fulfill this continental mandate.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the beautiful city of Oran and to convey to you the warm greetings of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune as well as his wishes for the full success of this gathering to which he attaches the utmost importance, said Lamamra.
Source APS