Remarks by President Charles Michel after his meeting with President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire

Thank you very much, President Ouattara. Thank you for your hospitality. It is a great privilege and a great pleasure for my delegation and myself to be in your beautiful country. Thank you for the extensive, substantial and fruitful discussion we have had on bilateral matters and the quality of our bilateral relations, as well as on the situation at regional and continental level. We also addressed some geopolitical issues.

A few points from the European side. We sincerely appreciate our bilateral relations, which are founded on two vital principles: respect and trust. Where respect and trust prevail, there is a desire to share a common agenda and common priorities on climate change and its challenges, whether those challenges concern the energy situation or forestation and deforestation, with an extremely important sector that unites us, the cocoa sector, since we, the European Union, are an economic and trading partner in that sector, and beyond.

Thank you for the sound cooperation in making progress to also ensure that private investors can enjoy a stable, positive and favourable macro-financial and macro-economic environment. Thank you for the efforts made in working towards ensuring legal stability and certainty.

We also discussed the economic situation and context. The major investments made in infrastructure can be clearly seen, with very tangible progress for the people. Great ambitions to address the needs and concerns of younger generations are also clearly evident. This is something which is absolutely vital; there are also visible efforts being made in social issues, health and education.

We also discussed cooperation in dealing with a subject of common interest, namely mobility and migration, in very operational and practical terms; thank you. I believe that we have a shared interest in ensuring that it is up to African and European politicians, together, to decide who is entitled to go to Europe or to go elsewhere from Europe. We must therefore offer legal migration channels and take action together against criminal groups that cynically exploit misfortune, despair and adversity. We had a good conversation on the subject of identification and nationality and I believe that we have indeed found a way to cooperate well on that issue with some of our member states, as well as with the European Union as a whole. Thank you for the very important information and insights you have provided on this subject.

We would like to highlight the vital role your country and its authorities play in stability and security in a more regional context. I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity yesterday to visit and see for myself the work and the quality, excellence and expertise in developing training, preparations and capacity-building to deal with the terrorist threat, which is not only a threat to this country, but one that we must tackle around the world, including within the regional framework. We have been able to witness such cooperation, and I hope that the initiative will continue to flourish. In any event, support from the European Union, not only for Côte d’Ivoire but also more broadly in a regional context, can be relied upon. Over the past four years EUR 570 million have been mobilised bilaterally for member states of the Accra Initiative. This approach is intended to provide support in a truly operational manner. For Côte d’Ivoire, for example, in principle next week member states are expected to officially approve the release of additional funds to enable the acquisition of equipment to combat terrorism such as drones, vehicles and equipment to gather information and intelligence.

Thank you again for this friendship and for this sincere and reliable cooperation. Thank you also for our conversations and discussions to endeavour to gain a broad understanding of the geopolitical issues we need to address, be it the situation of Russia’s war on Ukraine or the situation in the Middle East. As I have said, on the Middle East, a few weeks ago now the European Union adopted a very firm position based on several pillars. We want Israeli civilians to be afforded protection and Israeli hostages released, but we also want protection for civilians in Gaza. Humanitarian access is urgently required to achieve this. A ceasefire is indispensable to allow humanitarian access, and we are fully convinced that every effort must be made to avoid regional escalation and to return to the two-state solution and a process of political negotiations - a peace process. Once again, my deepest thanks. I am grateful for this meeting and for your hospitality, dear President Ouattara. Thank you very much.