AFRICA DESK: Why President will not meet Obama

05 Jul, 2015 - 00:07 0 Views
AFRICA DESK: Why President will not meet Obama

The Sunday Mail

0407-2-1-PRESIDENT MUGABE NEWFollowing claims by some sections of the private media that US president Barack Obama has “snubbed” President Mugabe because the two will not hold bilateral talks when the former visits Ethiopia this July. The Sunday Mail asked Adam Bakili (pseudonym), a foreign affairs expert and international consultant, to comment on the matter, and his conclusion is that the reports are way off the mark for the reasons he explains below…

Adam Bakili

There seems to be some confusion surrounding the visit this July by United States president Barack Obama to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and then Kenya.

Though the lay person might genuinely not fully understand international diplomacy and protocol, this confusion appears to be contrived in some circles.

Hardly one to pick fights, I only want to give an accurate perspective on what Obama’s visit to Ethiopia constitutes vis-a-vis Addis Ababa hosting the African Union headquarters.

What the US president will make come month-end is a bilateral visit to Ethiopia at the invitation of that country’s government.

It is critical to note from the outset that Ethiopian government engagements do not necessarily translate into AU business merely on account of the two institutions being housed in the same territory.

Unlike flowers, the functions of governments and institutions like the AU do not literally cross-pollinate.

To suggest or link his presence there with AU business would, therefore, be way off tangent.

President Obama is not carrying out a visit in relation to the continental body, but to Addis Ababa, which happens to host the AU secretariat.

In Addis itself, he will relate with the Ethiopian government and not the AU.

Of course, he may want to see the AU leadership, which, in the case of Addis Ababa, will be the African Union Commission, chaired by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

The AU’s political leadership is made up of the Chair plus five vice-presidents drawn from the continent’s five regions.

And from what we know, Obama has no intention of seeing that particular leadership.

So, he is making a bilateral visit.

If he wanted to meet AU Chair President Mugabe, it would not have been correct in terms of protocol for him to summon the President to Addis.

If he wished to see President Mugabe in that capacity of the continental grouping’s head, then he would have visited Zimbabwe, and this is exactly what other leaders who wanted to see the AU Chair have done.

No leader has ever summoned President Mugabe to Addis Ababa over AU issues. They come to Zimbabwe, Harare in particular, to see him.

So, there should be no confusion whatsoever.

There is no snub on President Mugabe. Obama’s visit has nothing to do with President Mugabe.

It is a bilateral visit to Ethiopia and a bilateral visit to Kenya that Obama is carrying out.

Trying to meet President Mugabe as AU Chair is really for the Americans to decide. One cannot judge for them. It depends on how they view the African Union; what importance they attach to it.

That determines how they relate to the body.

In any case, there has been no formal contact whatsoever between the AU and the US insofar as the AU Chair was concerned.

No American leader has ever visited Addis Ababa.

No American leader has engaged in dialogue with the AU’s political leadership.

The only time there was such dialogue was with the hosting of the Africa-US Summit in Washington.

But at individual level – and this relates to all the leaders who have been AU Chairs — none has had engagement with the American government at that level.

So, really, it depends on what importance the Americans put on the AU in terms of their foreign policy interests.

It will merely be familiarising with the AU secretariat — if he does see it at all.

Right now, there is no confirmed indication that he is going to meet them.

He might; he might not.

If he does, it will perhaps be meeting with the Commission Chair, Dr Dlamini Zuma. But we do not know whether or not they will meet at this point in time.

Is this a visit on the AU leadership?

No. It is a visit to Ethiopia at the invitation of the government of Ethiopia.

That is the ignorance that some people are displaying; that if he is going to Addis Ababa, he is going to the AU. It so happens, by coincidence, that Addis Ababa hosts the AU.

Ethiopia is important, especially in terms of America’s foreign policy, particularly the fight against terrorism in the Horn of Africa.

The same applies to Kenya.

It is in that vein that he is visiting Ethiopia and Kenya. They are countries that are important in terms of their strategic interest in the Horn of Africa, and in particular the fight against terrorism.

Adam Bakili is the pseudonym of a foreign affairs expert

Africa Desk is a forum aimed at educating our readership on African Union and Sadc issues

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