The Royal Atlantic Initiative, a concrete example of effective South-South cooperation between Africa and the Caribbean, was highlighted during the 2nd Africa-CARICOM (Caribbean Community) Summit.
Speaking at the Summit, held in Addis Ababa this Sunday sept.7, Morocco's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Mohammed Arrouchi, emphasized that the Royal Atlantic Initiative represents a tangible embodiment of active and united South-South cooperation.
The initiative not only aims to provide landlocked African countries with access to the Atlantic Ocean but also to establish an integrated infrastructure ecosystem that would transform the Atlantic space into a zone of exchange and shared prosperity for both regions.
The diplomat, who heads the Moroccan delegation at the Summit, recalled that the Kingdom considers inter-African South-South cooperation, as well as cooperation with other regions of the Global South, as a fundamental pillar of its foreign policy.
Furthermore, Arrouchi noted that the volume of economic exchanges between Africa and the Caribbean remains below expectations, reflecting the need to strengthen the operational dimension of this partnership.
In this regard, the Ambassador reaffirmed that effective and united South-South cooperation, such as that enshrined in the declaration of the 1st Africa-CARICOM Summit, which identified priority areas including trade, agriculture, energy, health, education, and connectivity, is essential to ensuring the resilience of both Africa and the Caribbean in the face of various challenges, and to building a development model tailored to the needs of both regions.