The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gen. Odongo Jeje Abubakharattended the 11th Ministerial Meeting of the Africa Union Committee of ten(C10) on the reform of the United Nations Security Council held on 10th June 2024 in Algiers, Algeria.
The meeting provided opportunity for C-10 Foreign Ministers toengage and take stock of the current state of play in the ongoing Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) at the United Nations General Assembly, to develop a strategy as the group continues to advance the Common African Position(CAP) and the next steps in the IGN process.
In his speech, Gen. Odongo stressed that the IGN process for the UN Security Council reform has been too slow, taken rather too long and appears to be stagnating. He observed that although there have been some convergences on a number of clusters within major negotiating groups, there are simply too many divergences that there is not sufficient common ground to move the process forward toward fruitful intergovernmental negotiations.
Gen. Odongo emphasized that Africa must overcome its weakness due to disunity and speak with one voice on all aspects of the reform process. He reaffirmed Uganda’s support for comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council, without any further delay, to address the long-standing injustice and imbalance in the present configuration of the UNSC.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Minister Odongo paid a courtesy call on H.E. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, President of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria. He also held bilateral talks with H.E. Ahmed Attaf, Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad of Algeria and exchanged views on cooperation areas between the two countries.
The C-10 is composed of ten African countries setup by the African Union (AU) with the mandate to advocate and canvass the African Common Position (CAP) on the Reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), as stipulated in the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration. The C-10 Member States are: Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Libya, Namibia, Senegal, Sierra Leone ( Coordinator), Uganda and Zambia.
The Minister was accompanied by Amb. Philip Odida, Ag. Director of Regional and Political Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Rebecca Otengo, Permanent Representative to the African Union in Addis Ababa, among other senior officials.
