Address by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali President of the Republic of Tunisia
to the 11 th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union Heads of State and Government
Delivered on his behalf by Mr. Abdelwaheb Abdallah Minister of Foreign Affairs
(Sharm El-Sheikh, June 30, 2008)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my distinct honor to convey to you the greetings of H.E. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, President of the Republic of Tunisia, and to deliver, on his behalf, his address to this Summit.
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Your Excellency President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak,
Your Excellency President Jakaya Kikwete, Chairperson of the African Union,
Your Excellencies,
Mr. Chairperson of the African Union Commission,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my distinct pleasure to express to His Excellency President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak my sincere thanks and consideration for hosting this Summit of ours, and my gratitude to the Arab Republic of Egypt for the excellent conditions provided to ensure the success of this meeting.
Sincere thanks are also due to His Excellency President Jakaya Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and current Chairperson of the African Union, for the efforts he has exerted since he assumed the chairmanship of the Union to serve African causes.
I wish to renew my warm congratulations to Mr. Jean Ping on his election as chairperson of the African Union Commission, and to commend his efforts in following up, with wisdom and competence, the implementation of the programs of action undertaken by our Union's structures.
I also would like to extend my thanks to Mr. Alpha Oumar Konare, for his contributions to serving joint African action all along his chairmanship of the African Union Commission.
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our Summit is being held within a delicate world situation that has given rise to huge difficulties and challenges, exacerbated by the excessive rise of the prices of oil and basic food products.
Though these difficulties have affected most of the regions of the world, the fact remains that their negative effects have been more intense in Africa where many countries are still shaken by conflicts and continuous tensions that have exhausted their resources and capacities, and slowed down their development process.
Aware of the importance of security and stability in achieving development according to a comprehensive approach based on the indissociability of the economic and social dimensions, we have called, on various occasions, for joining efforts in order to eradicate the hotbeds of tension in our Continent, and to settle conflicts through dialogue and peaceful means. This will help African countries devote their efforts to construction and development, promote their conditions, and consolidate their societies' capacity to interact positively with their regional and international environment.
Our African countries are called on, today and more than ever before, to further optimize inter-African coordination in order to overcome the current problems, meet the challenges facing joint African action, and acquire the immunity that helps them adapt to the current world changes.
We consider the African Union, with its various bodies and institutions, an optimum framework to promote complementarity among our economies, to strengthen the bonds of solidarity among our peoples and the relations of bilateral cooperation among our countries, and to settle conflicts and achieve security and stability in our Continent. This requires granting all due attention and support to the role of the African Peace and Security Council in achieving this objective.
While expressing our satisfaction with the processes of settlement and the significant steps made in addressing certain African conflicts, we call on all brothers in other regions of tension to opt for the logic of dialogue and mutual understanding in settling their conflicts.
In addition to the efforts exerted within the framework of the African Union, an understanding, on the part of the international community, of the Continent's conditions and needs, and an action to help it alleviate its economic crises, particularly through tackling poverty, the propagation of epidemics and diseases, and the intensification of environmental problems, are indeed essential and important factors to sustain national efforts exerted in this regard.
It is within this context that we launched our call for establishing a world solidarity fund for poverty eradication, and our call to the countries endowed with oil wealth to allocate one dollar for each oil barrel to finance this mechanism, given the importance of cooperation among the world's peoples in alleviating economic difficulties, and in conferring a greater humanitarian and solidarity dimension on international relations.
Our African continent has considerable resources, expertise and potentialities enabling it to promote solidarity among its countries and mutual assistance among its peoples, and thus to build a better future for Africans. We thus exhort our African Leaders to work for stimulating this spirit.
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The process of complementarity and integration we aspire to achieve among African countries necessarily requires that attention be focused, in our development process, on the issues that are closely related to the life of African citizens, to their daily concerns, and to the promotion of their living standards and quality of life.
We consider « Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation » an important theme in this Summit, given its strategic dimension and its being tightly linked to the priorities of our countries and peoples. We are, therefore, called on to explore larger prospects for cooperation in this field, through exchanging experiences and expertise, given our limited water resources and the challenges we have to meet to ensure food security for our peoples, especially within a fluctuating world situation in which speculation has even encompassed basic food products.
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The scarcity of water resources in the Continent, which do not exceed 9% of the world water resources, requires that we make better use of modern technologies for optimizing water economization and rationalizing water use, taking into consideration the fact that parts of the Continent are suffering drought and sand encroachment.
Despite the gains accomplished in many African countries, we are still confronted with huge challenges to achieve our water security and reduce the negative effects of climate change on our Planet.
Tunisia, which has continuously contributed to promoting joint African action in all fields, reaffirms, on this occasion, its willingness to pursue efforts in order to materialize this objective and contribute, with its expertise and experiences, jointly with all sisterly countries, to the success of the programs this Summit will adopt.
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The conflicts and wars taking place in our Continent, along with the scarcity of natural resources, the propagation of epidemics, and the harsh conditions experienced by some of our countries, seriously threaten African peoples' chances to achieve growth and prosperity, and to provide security, stability and decent life for young generations. These problems can be solved only through a genuine and effective solidarity among our countries, each according to its capacities, in addition to the support offered by our partners and friends all over the world, particularly the affluent countries, as this will secure peace and stability in the world. For Humanity's future depends on promoting a comprehensive, effective and sustainable international solidarity among its peoples.
Thank you for your attention.
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