Cooperation in Development, Climate Action, Peacebuilding Can Play Key Role in Building New Multipolar World, Secretary-General Tells African Union-European Union Summit

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the seventh annual African Union-European Union Summit, in Luanda today:

It is an honour to address you today, and to visit Angola so close to the fiftieth anniversary of the independence.

As President Antonio Costa mentioned, it is true that I had the privilege of proposing and then co-chairing the very first African Union-European Union Summit in 2000. Twenty-five years later, I am delighted to be back to this forum. To today’s co-chairs, I say: Os meus sinceros agradecimentos a ambos.

Right now, the world is changing at a radical rate. Technology barrels ahead, climate chaos reigns and inequalities deepen. We are moving towards a multipolar world, with global power in flux.

Against the risks of division of the world into two blocs, led by two big Powers, we need an interconnected multipolarity — with an inclusive network of intense relations on trade, development, financial institutions, and with increasing political coordination.

But, multipolarity in itself is not a guarantee of peace and prosperity. Europe was multipolar in 1914, but in the absence of strong multilateral governance, the result was war. Today’s multipolarity, to be successful, also needs multilateral institutions and dynamics as a condition for stability and equilibrium.

The partnership between the African Union and the European Union — two multilateral organizations — and more broadly the partnership between Europe and Africa, are well placed to be a central axis of a new multipolar world. This emerging reality offers an opportunity to rectify historic injustices, and usher in a fairer, more equal system for countries long excluded from global decision-making.

I wish to address three areas where cooperation between your two continents can play a decisive role in guiding this new reality. First, sustainable development. Today’s global financial architecture is both unfair and ineffective. It favours already wealthy nations. We must reform it, for everyone’s benefit.

This means ending the crushing debt cycle; tripling the lending capacity of multilateral development banks; and giving developing countries — many of them in Africa — greater participation and influence in the global financial institutions, as part of the reform of the international financial architecture, to adapt it to today’s world.

In Sevilla this year, the international community agreed on comprehensive steps to advance these goals. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development also point that way. Together, you can end the injustice of poverty, address the root causes of migration and displacement, and unleash the unmatched economic potential of this continent.

Second, climate action. Africa is rich in sun, wind, and critical minerals. And demand for these critical minerals is set to triple by 2030, driven by the shift towards clean energy. That must be an opportunity to reject the old models of resource exploitation and replace them with high value-added processing and production in the countries of origin.

With the right training and financing, the renewables revolution can empower all of Africa. But only if international cooperation enables a just transition away from fossil fuels, including the electrification of the continent. To allow for a just transition, we need developed countries to keep their promises and engage all their partners, and to double adaptation finance this year and to pursue all efforts to triple it by 2035, and to make the Baku Conference of the Parties’ decisions a reality.

Africa has the resources and a dynamic, young workforce. Europe has the capital and the technological know-how. Climate action is a duty, but between you both, it is an opportunity.

Third, we come to peace. The Russian [Federation] invasion of Ukraine — Europe’s worst conflict in a generation — unleashed terrible suffering for civilians and deep disruptions in the global economy. The death and destruction in Gaza will be remembered as our bigger failure of humanity. And in Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, countless others endure bloodshed and pain.

But, there is a way forward. The Pact for the Future, adopted last year, calls for permanent seats for Africa on the United Nations Security Council to rectify a deep historic injustice and strengthen the Council’s ability to deliver peace across the globe.

I repeat my call for sustainable, flexible and predictable funding for African Union-led peace operations, as endorsed by Security Council resolution 2719 (2023). And I commend the European Union for their direct engagement and for advocating this over the past decade.

The solutions to these challenges lie in multilateralism, including strong regional and global institutions. Together, as it was mentioned, the African Union and the European Union make up 40 per cent of UN Member States.

You have the power to uphold the Charter, broker agreements and steer the world towards a more stable, more inclusive reality, where international law prevails and injustices and inequalities are progressively eliminated. Out of the turbulence of today, you can craft a new era of hope, for unity, for equality and for peace.