U.S. lauds AU Nouakchott’s summit

The U.S. has commended the African Union (AU) on its 31st Summit, which took place in Nouakchott from June 25 to July 2.

The ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU took place under the theme: “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation’’.

The U.S. Department of State, in a statement by its Spokesperson, Ms Heather Nauert applauded the summit’s focus on reforming the continental body.

“The summit reinforced important efforts to reform the AU, a process the United States supports and believes will ensure it is better positioned to solve regional issues in the coming years.

“As the summit underscored peace and security that remain a priority.

“The United States applauds African efforts to take a more robust role in securing peace on the continent.

“The AU deploys peacekeepers into some of the world’s most dangerous environments.

“Adopting high-performance standards is critical to the AU’s conflict resolution efforts and the safety of African peacekeepers and the populations they protect.

“We recognise fully implementing standards for financial transparency, conduct and discipline, and human rights will take time.

“And we look forward to continued collaboration in pursuit of these objectives.

“We will look to the AU’s implementation of these standards across its peace support operations before considering additional financial support through the UN,’’ the statement read in part.

The U.S. acknowledged that establishing sustainable funding mechanisms for AU stabilisation operations was important to their success.

As such, the United States recognises the importance of increased AU self-financing efforts and contributions to the AU Peace Fund, it said.

The U.S. looked forward to welcoming AU High Representative for the AU Peace Fund, Dr Donald Kaberuka and AU Peace and Security Commissioner Smail Chergui, to the United States for a fruitful discussion on AU financing and reform.

NAN