Malabo hosted the opening
ceremony of the 7th Summit of African, Caribbean and Pacific Heads
of State and Government
Equatorial Guinean Foreign Minister, Agapito Mba
Mokuy, opened the 96th Session of the ACP Council of Ministers
with a call for stronger South-South cooperation aimed at improving the living
standards of people in developing countries.
Ministers and delegates from the African,
Caribbean and Pacific Group of nations (ACP) gathered on December 10, 2012,
in Malabo,
the capital of Equatorial
Guinea, for the 7th Summit
for African Caribbean and Pacific Heads of State and Government (ACP). Heads of government will meet December
13-14.
In his welcoming remarks, Minister Mba
Mokuy said that the Summit will focus on the future of global opportunities
and challenges within the ACP Group, which coincides with the objectives of
Equatorial Guinea’s development plan, Horizon 2020, which is a “a systematic
and progressive engine for our country’s politics with the outside world.”
Calling his country’s hosting of the meeting part of a
foreign policy characterized by greater openness to the rest of the world, he
said, “Equatorial Guinea is committed to the development of south-south
cooperation. This can in no way be
a substitute for traditional north-south cooperation, but an important
complement to it” and “an essential axis of solidarity among countries of the
south.”
He urged ACP nations to use solidarity to benefit their
people. “Economic difficulties on a global scale add to the permanent urgency
of designing and putting into practice appropriate development policies and
strategies,” he said.
He also called on the group to “take decisions and adopt
resolutions that lead to greater development at the service of our people.” He
said that ACP countries are always affected by decisions taken at the
international level, and must take the lead to help their people “move out of
poverty and enjoy dignified and secure employment, social protection, greater
purchasing power, and access to basic daily necessities like drinking water,
decent housing, electrical power, and education.”
Mba
Mokuy said that developing countries deserved greater representation on the
United Nations Security Council, and reminded the meeting that Africa had
requested two permanent seats.
This is the first time that Equatorial Guinea has hosted the
ACP Summit. Over the past two years, Malabo has hosted events such as the African
Union Summit, African-South
America Forum, 9th
Leon H. Sullivan Summit, among others in Sipopo.