Libyan foreign minister presents proposal to clear AU contribution arrears
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Najla al-Mangouch, has made a proposal to address the country's financial arrears to the African Union (AU), which have accumulated for years.
She was speaking at a meeting with the Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cherif Mahamat Zein, whose country chairs the ministerial committee for the evaluation of "balance sheets and contributions" to the AU.
The proposal, made at the meeting on the sidelines of the 40th ordinary session of the Executive Council of the African Union, "is to reduce the demands by half while paying the rest of the arrears in a single installment".
A statement issued on Thursday by the Libyan Foreign Ministry said the Chadian minister welcomed the proposal.
The statement said the two sides discussed the issue of the return of the executive secretariat of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) to the official headquarters of the Assembly in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the mechanism to achieve this.
It was agreed to present a proposal to hold an emergency summit in one of the member states at the meeting of the foreign ministers, which will be held in Morocco next March.
In 2019, the CEN-SAD headquarters was moved from Tripoli to N'Djamena, Chad, due to the insecurity that prevailed after the fall of the former regime in the wake of the 17 February revolution.
-0- PANA BY/JSG/BBA/MA 3Feb2022
