Pretoria: South African President Jacob Zuma, accompanied by Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane will, on Tuesday, 7 July 2009, lead the South African delegation to participate in the Group of 8 (G8) Summit scheduled for 8 to 10 July 2009 in L'Aquila, Abruzzo in Italy.
The Africa outreach session with the G8 will be attended by Nepad 5+3 namely the five initiating New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) countries Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa, and Libya (as Chair of the African Union), Ethiopia as Chair of the Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC), and the African Union Commission. Angola was invited by the host, Italy, to attend the session.
Issues for discussion during the Summit include, among others:-
* response to the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on Africa
* fight against climate change, leading to the Copenhagen conference
* contributing towards the strengthening of north-south relations
* ensuring implementation of all previous commitments agreed to by the g8
* promote the development agenda
* strengthening peace and security in Africa, with a specific focus on piracy in the horn of Africa and drug/arms trafficking/illegal fishing/ money laundering in west Africa.
The expected outcome documents from the Summit include a G5 declaration, a joint G5-G8 declaration, and joint statement on food security, MET Declaration on climate change and G8 + Africa joint statement on water.
South Africa engages with the G8 within the context of two outreach programmes, namely:
* the G8-Africa Outreach, established in Kananaskis, Canada in 2002 to promote the African Agenda, especially the Nepad.
* the engagement of the G8 through G5 outreach established at Gleneagles, United Kingdom in 2005 to dialogue on key political issues and economic policy questions and promote the evolution of an equitable global system of economic governance.
President Jacob Zuma and Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane will return to South Africa on 10 July.
Enquiries:
Nomfanelo Kota
Cell: 082 459 3787
Issued by: Department of International Relations and Co-operation
6 July 2009
