News

On 20 May, the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius, who is paying an official visit to Addis Ababa, met with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The meeting discussed the African Union’s cooperation with the European Union and the United Nations, the continent’s security challenges, including the crises in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel region and the Central African Republic. Quite a lot of attention was dedicated to the last month’s EU-Africa Summit in Brussels.

The conversation focused on the role of the African Union in ensuring security on the continent. L.Linkevičius informed the Chairperson of the African Union Commission N.Dlamini-Zuma about Lithuania’s contribution to international military operations in Africa and our country’s involvement in the settlement of the region’s problems at the United Nations Security Council.

The African Union is the largest and most important African organisation consisting of 54 African states. The organisation aims to achieve greater political and economic integration of the African countries, peace on earth, Africa’s active and equal participation in global policy-making and in the global economy. In 2013, Lithuania was granted observer status by the organization. The headquarters of the African Union are located in Addis Ababa.

On the last day of the visit Ethiopia, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister will give a lecture to Addis Ababa University students. Lithuania and Ethiopia established diplomatic relations in 1998. This is the first visit of the head of the Lithuanian diplomacy to Sub-Saharan Africa.