EEAS representative meets MFA of Uganda Odongo Jeje Abubakhar

European External Action Service (EEAS) representative, met Odongo Jeje Abubakhar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uganda, on the sidelines of the African Union - European Union Summit, taking place on 18 February 2022, in Brussels.

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EU seeks to boost Africa ties with eyes on Chinese, Russian competition. The European Union is aiming to convince the 40 African leaders in Brussels that Europe is their "most reliable partner".

EU and African leaders meet for a two-day summit on Thursday, seeking to reboot ties with pledges of major investment in the face of competition from China and Russia.

Relations between the two continents have been hampered by a raft of problems: from disputes over coronavirus vaccines, to curbing illegal migration, a wave of coups in Africa, the spread of jihadist terror and the growing clout of Russian mercenaries on the continent.

The European Union will offer several packages of support at the summit to bolster health, education and stability in Africa and will pledge half of a new €300 billion investment drive launched to rival China's Belt and Road Initiative.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said ahead of the two-day meeting, postponed from 2020 because of the pandemic, that the two continents were closely interlinked.

"African problems are our problems," he told the European parliament on Tuesday. "When we work to try to solve these problems, we work for ourselves as well."

"Our common ambition, Africans and Europeans, for this summit, is to achieve a renewed, modernised and more action-oriented partnership," said Senegal's President Macky Sall, who currently chairs the African Union.

President Emmanuel Macron of France, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, hopes the first joint summit since 2017 can burnish his grand ambition of forging an "economic and financial New Deal with Africa".

The EU is aiming to convince the 40 African leaders in Brussels that Europe is their "most reliable partner" by fleshing out an investment initiative that aims to mobilise €150 billion ($170 billion) of public and private funds over the next seven years.

The scheme is the first regional part of the EU's Global Gateway, a €300-billion ($340 billion) worldwide investment blueprint meant to rival China's Belt and Road initiative.

The EU is eyeing a dozen ambitious projects to bolster internet access, transport links and renewable energy as it seeks to provide an alternative to cheap loans from Beijing.

But details on funding remain vague and the projects are still to be agreed on with the African side.

African leaders are instead pushing for a far more concrete step of getting EU nations to allow the International Monetary Fund to allocate tens of billions of dollars in further aid.

Coups, mercenaries, Mali

The summit, which will involve a series of roundtable discussions, comes at a worrying time for the continent after a wave of military coups in West Africa and as the whole of the Horn of Africa region is wracked by conflict.

Burkina Faso last month joined Guinea, Mali and Sudan as the fourth country frozen out by the AU after disgruntled soldiers toppled the elected president.

Those four will not be represented in Brussels.

As Europe grapples with a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is also unsettled by the rising clout of Russian mercenaries in some of Africa's most volatile hotspots.

Shadowy paramilitary outfit Wagner, alleged to have close ties to the Kremlin, is accused of bolstering Moscow's geopolitical ambitions.

Western nations have condemned the reported arrival of its mercenaries in Mali's capital Bamako to help protect a junta that seized power last year. Mali's rulers deny hiring Wagner.

Macron is looking to redeploy France's forces in Mali to elsewhere in the Sahel, mostly in Niger, amid the breakdown in ties, ending a nine-year mission there battling jihadists.

European governments fear turmoil among the region's rulers risks leaving a vacuum that movements tied to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group could exploit.

An EU official said that in a bid to bolster broader stability, the EU planned to increase funding for African Union peacekeeping missions across the continent.

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