Moussa stresses importance of security, development in Africa
Egypt-Africa, Politics, 12/8/1999

Foreign Minister Amr Moussa yesterday stressed the importance of making peace in Africa to back the march of development and solve current disputes.

In his address to the France-Africa Ministerial Conference that kicked off in Paris on Tuesday, he said that Egypt led by President Hosni Mubarak had not spare any effort to support African security, advance assistance, participate in peacekeeping forces and settle disputes by peaceful means.

"There is a reciprocal relationship between security and development in Africa," he said, referring to the positive developments seen by Africa as regards ending conflicts peacefully.

"The Lusaka agreement was reached after strenuous and prolonged efforts to lay a foundation for an comprehensive settlement to the Congo and Great Lakes region problems," he said.

"Thanks to the Lusaka agreement, the road was paved to the United Nations to build on its foundations and move seriously towards this goal," the Egyptian top diplomat told the conferees.

"Egypt joined the military observers in Congo and is ready to take part in the African peacekeeping troops once the United Nations Security Council irons out a deal on the issue," he said.

Moussa spoke of the efforts exerted to end the Eritrea-Ethiopia war and contacts made to work out a framework agreement.

"Functional arrangements and technical measures are undertaken to implement the framework agreement," he said, hoping that these efforts succeed.

Moussa voiced hope that the donor countries and the international community would increase their contributions to the Peace Fund of the African Dispute Settlement Mechanism to cover the expenses of operations the OAU sponsored.

Moussa said at the time the African continent had better performance in dealing with disputes in the continent, it was not as much successful in advancing socioeconomic development and creating a climate suitable for increasing the standards of living.

"The issue should be of top priority in all meetings tackling the situation in Africa," he said.

He also stressed the importance of inter-African economic and regional integration through gatherings, which represent the first foundation stones towards an all-out integration.

Moussa gave the distinctive outcome of the COMESA as an example to pursue. Egypt is a member-state in the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

"Egypt is on its way to setting up a free trade area with the COMESA member-states by October 31," he said.

"Egypt took the initiative to call the member-states to hold a regional economic conference in Cairo on February 28, 29 under the auspices of President Hosni Mubarak," he said.

African presidents, heads of government, concerned ministers, and businessmen will attend the meeting.

Moussa said he is confident of the wide African and international participation in the regional conference that will give the COMESA an opportunity to reach its set goals, attract investments and step up inter-COMESA trade.

Previous Stories:
  Egypt backs up UK campaign to reform WTO   (12/7/1999)
  Moussa heads to France   (12/6/1999)
  Preparing for the economic conference for COMESA countries in Cairo   (11/23/1999)

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