Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit expressed here on Saturday his country's keenness to promote peace and security in Africa.
"Egypt's interest in promoting peace and security in Africa is as old as the Organization of Africa Unity (OAU). When the organization was established, Egypt was among the founding states," Abul Gheit said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the second day of the 13th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Executive Council ahead of the AU Summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort.
"Egypt is working for peace and security to prevail. We have participated all kinds of events and activities, as well as meetings and conferences ensuring Africa's conflicts to come to an end," the top Egyptian diplomat added.
He also noted that Egypt had been a member of the AU Peace and Security Council for three years and just ended its membership early this year.
As the hosting country of the AU Summit, Egypt tendered proposals on agricultural development and food security and reduction of food prices, boosting UN-AU cooperation for peace-building and peacekeeping to end civil wars in Africa, as well as strengthening Afro-Arab cooperation, according to Abul Gheit.
He added that Egypt is also focusing on making a list of excellent centers to accommodate conferences on Africa.
Foreign ministers or representatives of the 53 AU members attended the 13th ordinary session of the Executive Council to tackle on peace and security, the progress of political and economic integration and progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa, as well as human and people's rights, legal and health issues in the continent among others, according to the meeting agenda.
Under the summit theme "Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation", the 11th AU Summit is scheduled on June 30 to July 1 in Sharm El- Sheikh.
The upcoming AU summit is the first to be held in Egypt since the AU replaced the 1963-established OAU in 2002. Egypt had played host to three OAU's summits.
Source:Xinhua
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