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President Thabo Mbeki to depart from the AU to the G-8 Summit,
Gleneagles, Scotland, Thursday, 7 - Friday, 8 July 2005 Sirte - President
Thabo Mbeki, who together with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini
Zuma is currently in Libya will at the end of the AU Summit today, Tuesday 5 July,
depart Sirte for Gleneagles, Scotland ahead of the G-8 Summit scheduled for Thursday
- Friday, 7-8 July 2005. President Mbeki, accompanied by Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, will participate in two different interactions
with G8 leaders. Firstly, President Mbeki will participate in the G8 + 5 Dialogue
on Thursday 7 July, which will be an interaction between G8 leaders and leaders
of countries of the South-namely South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Mexico
including representatives from the UN, IMF, WTO and the World Bank in a discussion
on global economic issues and Climate Change. Friday 8 July will see President
Mbeki join the African leadership collective, led by President Olusegun Obasanjo
and leaders of Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Egypt and Algeria, in the G8-Africa
Session. As part of preparations for the Africa-G8 Summit, President
Thabo Mbeki has, in his interaction with G8 leaders and in various fora called
for practical outcomes based on commonly agreed set of priorities reflected in
the NEPAD programme and in the G-8 Africa Action Plan. In this regard, President
Mbeki and African leaders have called on the G-8 Summit: - To formulate
specific recommendations for the implementation of the G-8 AAP adopted at the
2002 Kananaskis Summit;
- To agree on the implementation of specific projects
aimed at addressing the priority areas of NEPAD including ICT, infrastructure
and agriculture development. In this regard it will also be imperative that resources
to ensure the implementation of these projects are also available;
- To
reach consensus on debt relief for African countries which transcends the Highly
Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative; and
- To reach consensus on
the outcomes of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations with particular
reference to the matter of agricultural subsidies.
A number of bilateral
requests for meetings with President Mbeki have been received from several G8
leaders. President Mbeki will depart the G8 Summit for Sudan for the inauguration
of the Sudanese President and his two vice Presidents. Issued by Ronnie
Mamoepa on 082 990 4853. Department of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag
X152
Pretoria
0001 5 July 2005
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