- As Czech Republic Seeks a More Robust Partnership
President Muhammadu Buhari and the Presidents of Algeria and South Africa as well as the Prime Minister of Ethiopia under the auspices of the “G4” have resolved to strengthen the platform for the resolution of the various issues confronting the African continent.
At a meeting Thursday in Brussels, Belgium ahead of the 6th EU-AU Summit taking place in the country, the four African leaders used the opportunity to discuss crisis areas on the continent with a view to coming up with practical and effective solutions.
According to a statement on the meeting by Presidential Spokesperson, Garba Shehu, President Buhari and his colleagues stressed the need to reinvigorate the G4 within the African Union (AU) as a platform for bringing African countries closer, coordinating actions and reactions for the whole continent in a more proactive manner and looking at how decisions in the AU could be better implemented.
They also agreed to convene a formal summit to chart a road map for Africa in the coming months.
The G4 Platform, an initiative of the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, was set up towards discussing and proffering solutions as well as aggregating positions to ensure that the African Union carries its work forward successfully, efficiently and quickly too.
President Buhari also held a bilateral meeting with the President of Czech Republic, Milos Zeman who renewed his country’s trust in the Nigerian leader and Nigeria as the most important country in ECOWAS as well as one of Africa’s greatest. He expressed the readiness of his country to revitalise the Joint Commission mechanism between the two countries in order to enhance qualitative relationship, diplomatically and people to people.
The Czech leader specifically expressed interest and desire for more robust collaboration and partnership in military cooperation and especially in equipment to assist Nigeria to enhance her security capabilities.
President Zeman, who informed that the Czech Republic would assume the Presidency of the European Union (EU) in July, expressed similar readiness to partner with Nigeria in the fields of Agriculture and Health and has decided to convene a pre-assumption of EU Presidency consultative meeting, to help set early agenda for her Presidency.
He invited Nigeria’s Minister of Health to attend the consultative meeting of highly respected countries in Prague in May 2022 and also extended an invitation to President Buhari to visit his country in the course of 2022.
While President Buhari accepted in principle the two invitations, assuring that the proposals would be considered through appropriate Diplomatic channels, he directed the Minister of Health of Nigeria to attend the meeting in May.
On the revitalisation of the relationship between the two countries and deepening partnerships in military cooperation procurement of equipment as well as in Agriculture, President Buhari assured his guest he would work with the proposals.