Zimbabwe delegation in Samoa led by Ambassador Mutembwa
By Dickson Bandera
A Zimbabwean delegation is in Apia, Samoa for a special session of the Organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) Council of Ministers.
The delegation is led by the Zimbabwean Ambassador to the BENELUX, (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), and Permanent Representative to the European Union, Ambassador Mutembwa who is standing in for Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Hon Frederick Shava.
Joining fellow parliamentarians is Deputy President of Senate, Hon Lt Gen (Rtd) Mike Nyambuya and Counsel to Parliament, Ms Pise. The delegation also has senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Top on the agenda will be the signing ceremony of the OACPS-EU Partnership Agreement, the ‘Samoa Agreement’ which is set to replace the Cotonou Agreement.
The new Agreement prioritizes six areas, namely; Democracy and human rights, sustainable economic growth and development, climate change, human and social development, peace and security, and migration and mobility.
The new Agreement, negotiated from September 2018 to December 2020, crucially provides for a concrete institutional parliamentary dimension based on annual meetings of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
In addition, the Agreement provides for the setting up of three Regional Parliamentary Assemblies (RPA) for Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
The RPAs will bring together Members of the European Parliament and Parliamentarians from the OACP countries, who will at the same time be Members of the JPA, thus ensuring links between the different pillars and levels of the partnership.
The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is an organisation created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. It is composed of African, Caribbean and Pacific States signatories to the Georgetown Agreement or the Partnership Agreement between the ACP and the European Union, officially called the “ACP-EC Partnership Agreement” or the “Cotonou Agreement”.
