Tunis: Tunisia’s mandate in the African Union Peace and Security Council (AU-PSC) expires on March 31, 2024, after two years during which the country held one of the two seats belonging to the North African region within this important African organ, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad said in a press release on Sunday.
The ministry pointed out that it was a task that Tunisia has undertaken with the same determination and commitment that have always characteriaed its foreign policy and its contributions to the service of international peace and security worldwide and in Africa in particular, based on the principles of African solidarity and integration called for by the founding fathers of the Organisation of African Unity/African Union.
Along these two years, during which the whole world and Africa witnessed unprecedented challenges at all levels,Tunisia has always been keen to be a positive force of proposal and continued working to strengthen joint African action, cooperation
and solidarity among African countries and to consolidate a new concept of collective security and common destiny on the basis of universal values and principles of the United Nations Charter and the Constitutive Charter of the African Union.
Throughout this period, Tunisia worked to advance the processes of peaceful political settlement of conflicts, strengthen preventive diplomacy, and to activate the Council’s role and responsibility in maintaining security and peace in the African Continent.
During its Presidency of the Council in April 2023, Tunisia worked on implementing its vision aiming at finding peaceful, just and lasting solutions to the various African issues for the sake of a safe, stable and prosperous African continent.
Tunisia has always been committed to strengthen the role of the Council and support its efforts to prevent conflicts, establish peace, support the pillars of African stability and devoted itself to development and reconstruction efforts.
The Tunisian Presidency programme inc
luded a series of meetings dedicated to following up on the reconciliation efforts in Libya, supporting countries going through transitional processes, evaluating the process of the African Union transitional Mission in Somalia, as well as on the progress of the transitional political processes in Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Guinea.
Tunisia inserted on the agenda of the AU-PSC for the month of April 2023, several themes of common interest, such as strategic air transport and cybersecurity in Africa, raising awareness of the importance of mine prevention, preventing genocide and hate crimes in the continent.
Tunisia ‘s hosting of the 15th session of the Council’s annual retreat in November 2023, was an occasion during which Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar stressed the importance of providing the AU-PSC with the necessary tools to find adequate solutions to African problems.
In December 2023, Tunisia also hosted a meeting at the level of experts dedicated to discuss a unified African position on the applicati
on of international law in the field of information and communications technologies use in cyberspace.
Tunisia was elected to the Council for the period 2022-2024, during the elections held on the occasion of the 40th session of the Executive Council of the African Union, in Addis Ababa, in February 2022.
This was the second time that the country joined the AU-PSC which was established in 2004. Its mandate started in the aftermath of the end of its membership in the UN Security Council for the period 2020-2022, during which Tunisia was the voice of Africa and the Arab world, the same source pointed out.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse