More so, it is this same 2,500 seating capacity conference wing that was recently commissioned by President Hakainde Hichilema that is going to host the 41st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) and the 4th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting (MYCM) of the AU and the Regional Economic Communities (RECS) next month.
This AU summit that is expected to have a total of 14 heads of state and over 8,000 foreign delegates will be held from July 14 to 17, 2022.
Now, that’s a huge number – and Zambia is ready!
Well, at least that is what Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Stanley Kakubo indicated recently. He said the Government is committed to ensuring that Zambia successfully hosts the much-anticipated summit, which is expected to build the country’s image.
“My further appeal to the private sector is for you to consider sponsoring some of the budget outcomes that we shall incur. Benefits to be accrued from the summit will include boosting tourism and uplifting of the country’s image,” he said recently.
This will not be the first time Zambia hosts such a high-powered summit, and it shouldn’t be a big hassle pulling it off.
History shows and tells us that this has happened before, and it can happen again. Here is why!
Zambia, in September 1970, hosted the Third Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement where a preparatory meeting of Foreign ministers drafted a number of resolutions which were considered by the Summit Conference.
Then republican President Kenneth Kaunda (late) opened the conference by underlining non-alignment as “the natural choice at the time of increased hostility created by ideological conflicts in the bipolar world”.
The conference was organised in the context of the development of the policy of Détente, which in fact led to relaxing tensions between the Soviet Union and the West, yet this increased cooperation among superpowers potentially excluded the space for the initiative of Third World countries. It was organised six years after the conference in Cairo, something regarded as the longest period between the two conferences.
Now, the location for this particular conference was in part selected in order to support Zambia, whose sovereignty and borders at the time were threatened by Rhodesia and apartheid-era South Africa.
It was at this conference that the “Declaration on Peace, Independence, Development, Cooperation and Democratisation of International Relations” and the “Declaration on Non-Alignment and Economic Development” were adopted.
Fast forward to August 1979, the country yet again hosted the Fifth Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Thirty-nine countries are recorded to have attended this high-level meeting that took place at Mulungushi International Conference Centre after a great deal of hesitation from then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who had never been to Africa before.
In fact, it is believed that she did not trust the African leaders, and having the meeting in Lusaka, just next to Rhodesia where the nationalist leaders there were agitating for majority rule, made her extremely uneasy.
It is said that Thatcher tried to persuade Queen Elizabeth that it would not be safe for her to travel to Lusaka to officially open the conference. Unfortunately for her, she did not succeed and when she came down, she ended up dancing with Dr Kaunda.
Among the issues that were discussed at the conference included the situation in Rhodesia, the armed conflicts in Indo-China, the global growth of the refugee problem, the situation in Cyprus and southern Africa. The highlight, however, is The Lusaka Declaration of the Commonwealth on Racism and Racial Prejudice and a special declaration condemning apartheid.
It is this same meeting that led to the Lancaster House Conference, which eventually paved way for majority rule and the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980.
In July 2001, the country hosted the Summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) that is today regarded as the ‘birthplace’ of the African Union.
The summit, which was also attended by then United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, saw the launch of the African Union. “This summit holds a great promise for Africa’s peoples – the promise that it will be remembered for launching the African Union, and setting the continent as a whole on a firm path to peace and development.
“But this promise will not be realised easily. Unless it is pursued with singular determination by you, Africa’s leaders at the beginning of the 21st century, it will not succeed. This historic effort will require leadership, courage and a willingness to depart from the ways of the past, if it is to do for Africa what the European Union has done for Europe,” reads his speech in part.
After a transition period, the African Union replaced the OAU in July 2002. In 2004 the AU’s Pan-African Parliament was inaugurated, and the organisation agreed to create a peacekeeping force, the African Standby Force, of about 15,000 soldiers.
Going by these and many other past scores and successes, coupled with the recent infrastructure development drive, it is safe to indeed proclaim that the country is ready to host the Mid-Year Coordination Meeting.
And some briefs about this upcoming summit are that it will mainly focus on the status of regional integration, while the 55-member Executive Council will meet prior to the Mid-Year Coordination Meeting to prepare documentation and also discuss the budget of the Union for 2023.
It will bring together the bureau of the Assembly of the AU, the Regional Economic Communities, the AU Commission and the Regional Mechanisms.
It is also associated with the institutional reforms of the AU, particularly the pillar on managing the business of the Union efficiently and effectively, at both political and operational levels, and was instituted by an Assembly decision in 2017, and the first such meeting held in July 2019 in Niamey, Niger.
No comments:
Post a Comment