Interview

with the African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Said Djinnit,

INTERVIEWER: We have the African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Said Dijinnit.

Mr. Ambassador, what was the main focus of your meeting today?

AMBASSADOR SAID DIJINNIT (African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security): Well during my discussions both with the officials of NATO and the Secretary General and the Council, we focused on the co-operation between NATO and the African Union. And as you know, NATO has been providing support to the African Union in Sudan through support of the African mission in Sudan on the one hand and we have been also exploring possibilities for expanding the co-operation to other areas. And of course NATO has been also providing capacity-building support to the African Union in Sudan and we are looking forward to discussing to expand that co-operation to include the long term capacity-building of the African Union.

We are in the process of establishing the African stabilisation force and NATO, together with our partners, is willing and we are seeking the support of NATO.

INTERVIEWER: How would you evaluate the co-operation between NATO and the African Union?

DIJINNIT: Well the co-operation between the AU and NATO is recent. I mean it's just a few years of existence, but I can say that it has been quite helpful to us because the support of NATO, together with the European Union and others, in providing logistic support and airlift to our mission in Sudan has been extremely helpful. And the support provided by NATO, again, in capacity-building for our mission in Sudan was also very useful. So therefore it is very positive co-operation.

INTERVIEWER: How would you like to see the co-operation between NATO and African Union in the future?

DIJINNIT: Well we in Africa believe in gradual improvement and development of any initiative, including the co-operation between the African Union and NATO. We believe that this is very promising co-operation, but we have to be pragmatic. We believe that we have to build on what we have been doing so far and expand on it. So this is approach we are taking and we have no doubt that the co-operation between the EU and NATO will be expanded in the future.

INTERVIEWER: Excellent. Thank you.