Foreign minister meets high representative of AU Peace Fund

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Sun, 04 Jun 2017 - 04:08 GMT

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Sun, 04 Jun 2017 - 04:08 GMT

Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry (R) meets with the African Union’s High Representative for the Peace Fund Donald Kaberuka (L) – Press photo

Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry (R) meets with the African Union’s High Representative for the Peace Fund Donald Kaberuka (L) – Press photo

CAIRO – 4 June 2017: Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry received the African Union’s High Representative for the Peace Fund, Donald Kaberuka, Sunday. The two discussed the AU’s structural reform process and peacekeeping efforts in Africa, according to a statement by the ministry.

The meeting discussed ways to maximize the African Union’s budget resources and reform its structures, in order to carry out the organization’s responsibilities and achieve the ambitions of the continent’s people.

Shoukry stated that Egypt supports the AU’s current reform process in principle, while maintaining the balance between the organization’s role and that of the African states in leading joint African actions, ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said.

The meeting also tackled the new financing model adopted during the Kigali Summit 2016, which endorsed measures for alternative funding, such as claiming a 0.2 percent levy on imports to African countries and asking each region to contribute with $65 million from the import levy to the fund. The new plan would allow the AU to fulfill its obligation of covering 25 percent of peacekeeping operations in Africa, according to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

Rwandan President Paul Kagame was assigned by African heads of state to come up with reform proposals during the Kigali Summit. He presented his report in early May, aiming to guide the governments to address the challenges facing the AU.

Shoukry and Kaberuka also discussed the joint responsibility of African states and the international community in maintaining the continent’s peace and security.

The ministry has set a series of meetings between Kaberuka and the ministers of finance, trade and industry, as well as the governor of Egypt’s Central Bank, the statement read.

The Peace Fund is responsible for “Mediation and Preventive Diplomacy, Institutional Capacity and Peace Support Operations,” according to the AU’s official website. A 2016 AU assembly decided that the fund would be endowed with $325 millions in 2017, which should rise to $400m by 2020.

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