Brussels, 15/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - On a visit to Brussels, South African president Thabo Mbeki was expected to be welcomed by Manuel Barroso(the future president of the European Commission) late afternoon. Barroso is due to be invested by the European Parliament on Thursday.
This visit is testimony to president Mbeki's desire to continue privileged relations between his country and the EU, South Africa's main trading partner. It also provides president Barroso with the opportunity to meet the man who has been involved in negotiations in all African conflicts, including that of Ivory Coast. This will take place just after the Abuja Summit (which Mbeki did not attend, in order to continue his consultation with the Ivory Coast opposition, in his position as UN mediator to attain a peaceful settlement to the conflict) and on the eve of the vote for a resolution to conditional sanctions at the United Nations Security Council.
A few days from the Great Lakes Summit on 19-20 November in Dar-es-Salam (Tanzania), the situation in the Great Lakes is also on president Mbeki's agenda, as it will be on Tuesday when he meets the Belgian authorities and parliament. The South African president will be addressing MEPs on Wednesday for the plenary session in Strasbourg, before he goes to The Hague for an official visit with Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands and the Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who is chairman of the European Council.