European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) heads of diplomacy meet today in Rwanda's capital Kigali to prepare for the EU-Africa summit, scheduled for February 2022 after several postponements due to the covid-19 pandemic.

The ministerial meeting, co-chaired by the president of the EU Executive Council, the deputy prime minister and head of diplomacy of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Christophe Lutundula Apala, and the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, has been taking place since Monday in Kigali, and a meeting at the level of foreign ministers is scheduled for today.

According to a statement from the Portuguese government, the meeting "will allow to evaluate the progress made since the Abidjan summit [held in 2017], at the level of cooperation between the European Union and the African Union, as well as discuss future prospects for this partnership between the two continental blocs."

The Portuguese Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, takes part in today's meeting in the Rwandan capital.

According to a source in Brussels, discussions in Kigali will focus on AU-EU cooperation on strengthening resilience, peace, security and governance, and migration and mobility" as well as on the partnership between the two sides with a view to "mobilizing investments for sustainable African structural transformation and investing in people", namely in the areas of education, science, technology and skills development.

The covid-19 crisis and international vaccine solidarity are also expected to be addressed at the Kigali meeting, other sources indicated.

The next summit of EU and AU heads of state and government, the sixth, originally scheduled for 2020, is now scheduled for February 2022 in Brussels, after successive postponements due to the covid-19 pandemic, which notably prevented its celebration during the Portuguese presidency of the EU Council in the first half of this year.

The first and second EU-Africa summits were held with Portugal at the 'helm' of the EU, in 2000 in Cairo and 2007 in Lisbon.

Lusa Agency