KAMPALA. President Museveni has assured the European Union (EU) that peace in the entire East African region will prevail as member countries’ leadership continues to strengthen their working relationship.
“Peace in the region is getting better. Part of the problem in the region; South Sudan, Burundi was because we have not been working together. That was the source of the problem,” Mr Museveni said.
According to the Statehouse statement issued yesterday, the President made the remarks on Saturday while meeting with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice President of the Commission Ms Federica Mogherini, at the sidelines of the African Union (AU) Heads of State summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In Burundi, President Museveni said, there is no fresh fighting and that the country’s leadership is working more closely with its regional counterparts as witnessed in the recently-held East African Community summit in Arusha, Tanzania.
“I am leading the peace process in Burundi and I know that what is disrupting the peace process. We will work to resolve this,” he added.
Mr Museveni also reportedly told Ms Mogherini that Europe being closer to the African continent compared to other developed countries, there should be a good relationship between the two partners with solutions for co-existence on matters of substance, not periphery issues.
“We are grateful for the support from EU and for development and trade. It is very important for more energy to be unleashed,” he said.
The President further emphasized that Uganda’s economy is steadily growing, addressing the removal of development bottlenecks through infrastructure development; the railway, electricity, digital and utilities among others.
Ms Mogherini told President Museveni that Europe is accommodative and will strengthen trade and business relations with Africa.
“Europe has quite a lot of interests in Africa,” she said.
In a separate meeting, President Museveni and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir have agreed to hold a meeting in Juba to assess the South Sudan Agreement and the implementation of the agreed terms of the signatories.
The two presidents also discussed the sidelines of the summit of the African Union, bilateral relations, joint integration projects between the two countries and South Sudan, developing river transport and using the Nile as a link between the three countries.
President Museveni arrived in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Saturday ahead of the 32nd Ordinary Summit of the African Union Heads of State and government.
The AU’s theme for this summit is “Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons” presented within a security context.
At the summit, the outgoing AU chairperson and Rwandan President Paul Kagame handed over to Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for the one year tenure.
