Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad, Mohamed Ali Nafti, held talks on Thursday with Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.
According to a statement from the ministry, the meeting provided an opportunity to review cooperation relations between Tunisia and the African Union (AU) and to examine ways to further boost them, in line with the Union’s founding principles and values.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Tunisian foreign minister’s participation in the second day of the 48th ordinary session of the African Union Executive Council, held on February 11–12 in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Tunisia’s commitment to joint African action
On this occasion, Nafti reaffirmed Tunisia’s commitment to joint African action and its active contribution to various programs and activities aimed at consolidating peace and security on the continent, strengthening the foundations of sustainable development in Africa, and achieving the desired economic integration within this vital space.
Discussions also addressed the main challenges facing African states and ways to enhance the African organization’s capacity to deal with them, against a backdrop marked by recurring regional and international crises.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs also met with the Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, Amma Twum-Amoah.
In this context, he expressed Tunisia’s readiness to develop cooperation with the Commission in areas within its remit, particularly health, social development and the empowerment of women, as well as to address the challenges posed by irregular migration.
Ensuring the voluntary return of repatriated persons
He highlighted Tunisia’s comprehensive and multidimensional approach to dealing with this issue, stressing the need to encourage voluntary return mechanisms and provide socio-economic support for repatriated persons returning to their countries of origin.
During his meeting with Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene, Nafti underscored Tunisia’s major contribution to reactivating mechanisms for economic and trade cooperation within this new framework, emphasizing the need to accelerate the completion of the next steps to ensure its effective operation in the service of stronger economic integration across the continent.
Nafti also held meetings with his counterparts from several brotherly and friendly countries, including Egypt, Mauritania, South Africa, Senegal, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.
These meetings focused on coordination regarding key items on the agenda of the AU Executive Council and on ways to mobilize support for several Tunisian candidacies.
They also provided an opportunity to explore ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation with these countries and to prepare effectively for upcoming bilateral engagements, according to the same source.
The Tunisian delegation also contributed to the debates of the second session of the Executive Council devoted to the main items on the agenda, notably the adoption of AU legal instruments, social justice as a development priority on the continent, the financing of the AU, and the rationalization of its governance mechanisms, the statement concluded.
