The first high-level meeting of the ministers for Justice from the Atlantic African countries concluded on Tuesday 23 April. The meeting set out the key strategies regarding this initiative by the Kingdom of Morocco, which adopted its roadmap in 2023.
The Equatoguinean Minister for Justice, Worship and Penitentiary Institutions, Sergio Esono Abeso Tomo, pointed out at the end of the meeting that the process devised by King Mohammed VI was a key tool that would allow the Heads of State in the region to identify areas of cooperation to guarantee security in the African Atlantic region.
“The King of Morocco has devised a formula for cooperation in which the sovereignty and independence of States is not threatened; it is a forum for cooperation without binding instruments, based on on the leadership of Heads of State and Governments, which means that the conference creates platforms for exchanging knowledge in sectors such as the fight against terrorism, transnational organised crime and maritime piracy, and in terms of the economy and the environment, so that Africa can provide African solutions to African problems,” Esono Abeso Tomo told TVGE in Rabat.
At another point he stressed that the Head of State, H. E. Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, as a Pan-Africanist, had made it possible for the Equatoguinean Ministry for Justice to be part of the work to create the institutional legal framework that will allow this cooperation to function in the same way as APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation).
To that end, the heads of justice from the 23 States that make up the area suggested various approaches for achieving these objectives, which revolve around the fight against terrorism, transnational organised crime and maritime piracy, among other areas, and which were set out in the ministerial declaration adopted at the forum. It focused chiefly on the need for the participating States to create frameworks for legal and judicial cooperation, which would guarantee stability in the area, provided they work in a cooperative manner.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Equatorial Guinea: Official Web Page of the Government.
