Afro-Arab summit: what’s new from 1977 to 2010?

The main objective of the second Afro-Arab summit was to consolidate cooperation between Arab and African countries, allowing exchanges on various issues of common interest.

Under this meeting, the Heads of State of the two blocks have adopted a strategy of cooperation and an action plan for the period 2011-2015. Due to the globalisation threats, Africans and Arabs have decided to unite their efforts to jointly tackle the challenges of development. During this summit, a commitment was taken not to break the cooperation process launched in Cairo in 1977, by holding a summit every three years. The Libyan Leader Gaddafi, who organised the conference, hoped that this meeting will allow the Arabs and Africans to manage their wealth for themselves by stopping the looting organised for centuries. By doing so, this would accelerate the progress of the Arabs and Africans, he said. Cooperation between the two blocks will now be successful. Africa will bring the natural resources and the fertile lands and the Arabs the capital for the development of the two blocs. However, the success of such a project depends on the political will of the leadership to go beyond their disagreements, but also depends on the countries’ ability to pragmatically address the most pressing problems each country faces and to do so in a way that is consistent with the European Union, the United States, the Asian and the multinationals interests within the two blocs. That is all the smart efforts to be done to rally the bilateral with the multilateral cooperation. It might take another 33 years….The next summit will be held in Kuwait in 2013, and  the Syrte Declaration has instructed the General Secretariat of the Arab League and the African Union Commission to monitor the Action Plan 2011-2015 and make the  report at the summit in Kuwait.