Egypt’s El-Sisi To Give Speech At AU Summit

Egypt’s newly elected president, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, is scheduled to give a speech on Thursday at the African Union’s twenty-third Ordinary Summit in Equatorial Guinea’s Malabo, MENA reported.

Egypt regained membership in the AU on Tuesday after almost a one-year suspension following the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi.

The AU attributed its decision to suspend Egypt’s membership at the time to its policy to suspend any member state that undergoes an “unconstitutional change” of government.

El-Sisi will speak in the summit in accordance with the tradition whereby newly elected presidents of member states address the assembly. Also speaking will be Peter Mutharika, Malawi’s newly elected president and José Mário Vaz, Guinea Bissau’s new president.

The AU’s twenty-third Ordinary Summit has started on 20 June to 27 June under the theme “agriculture and food security.”

Egypt was readmitted to the AU following the successful completion of the presidential elections, which took place from 26-27 May, as part of its “roadmap” to democracy.

Egypt has so far finalised two out of three milestones of its post-Morsi roadmap, ratifying a new constitution in January and electing a new president in May.

The last step is the election of a parliament, the procedures for which must commence before 17 July, according to 2014’s amended national charter.

Source : Ahram online