The Group of African islands build alliances at African Union meeting |13 June 2015

The Group of African Island States have met ahead of the 27th Ordinary Session of the African Union Executive Council in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss the strengthening of the island states voice within the African Union.

The heads of delegations of the Island States of Cabo Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles gathered at the Sandton International Convention Centre on June 10 to discuss pertinent issues, specifically the African Union ‘First Ten-Year Plan on the Implementation of Agenda 2063’ and key areas such as environment, tourism, climate change, air and maritime connectivity, and the Blue Economy.

“Within Africa there are only six African island states, and while we are spread across two oceans on opposing ends of the continent, our commonalities are clear. It is therefore important that we are always working together to ensure our inclusivity within the African Union in the context of our concerns, specificities and vulnerabilities,” said the Seychelles Minister for Foreign Affairs and Transport, Jöel Morgan, who chaired the gathering.

The discussions mainly focused on the implementation plan for Agenda 2063 ‘The Africa We Want’ and what the foreign ministers deemed to be priority areas for the islands for the next ten years.

The delegations gathered expressed their mutual solidarity and their commitment to maintaining strong collaborations among the states at every opportunity.

In addition to the development agenda for the continent, the island states discussed the continued under representation of islands on international bodies and expressed a commitment to continuing the effort to address this.

The Seychelles delegation, led by Minister Morgan, is currently in Johannesburg attending the 25th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union, and includes the country’s permanent representative to the African Union, Ambassador Joseph Nourrice; resident ambassador in Pretoria, Claude Morel; and the principal counsellor in the Seychelles embassy in Addis Ababa, Amanda Bernstein.