Differences over the attendance of Mugabe have prevented the summit from being held until now, but the European Union recently agreed to lift its travel ban on Mugabe so that he can attend the talks.
South Africa’s Deputy Director-General for Europe in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Gert Grobler, said Wednesday that Zimbabwe was not on the summit’s agenda and that South Africa wanted the summit to focus on its agenda and on expanding the strategic partnership between the two continents.
Grobler also noted that one of the themes of the summit was governance and human rights.
He said that apart from these two issues, the other agreed items were peace and security, migration, energy and climate change and trade and infrastructure and development.
The last summit held between the two continents was in 2000 in Cairo, Egypt.
Grobler added: “The key objective for Africa is that this new partnership between Africa and Europe should make a tangible impact towards the reduction and the eventual eradication of poverty in Africa.”
Meanwhile a report in Bloomberg said that European leaders are holding this summit “to counter China’s growing influence on the continent.”
In an interview with Bloomberg’s, Christopher Alden of the London School of Economics and author of ‘China in Africa’, said: “China’s role in Africa is a wake up call for the EU, which has for too long taken Africa and its relationship with the continent for granted.”
China is doubling its aid to Africa by 2009 and is providing US$8 billion in loans and investment, ‘eroding Europe’s clout that dates back to the colonial era of the 19th century,’ claims Bloomberg.
Bloomberg quotes Portugal’s deputy foreign ministter, Joao Gomes Cravinho, as saying: “China’s growing role in Africa has led some people, who were otherwise distracted, to say that if China is this interested then we’d better be interested too.”
China’s second-biggest iron-ore trading company, Sinosteel Corp., won government approval on October 18 to buy a majority stake in Zimasco Ltd, Zimbabwe’s largest ferrochrome producer.
Zimbabwe has been in an economic meltdown now for nine years and it is claimed has the world’s fastest-shrinking economy and the highest inflation rate.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown blames Mugabe for the state of Zimbabwe’s economy while Mugabe accuses Zimbabwe’s former colonial power, Britain, for reneging on promises to fund land reform.
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