London, Dec. 9, 2019 (AltAfrica)- The 9th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States  (ACP Group), opens on Monday in Nairobi, Kenya.

The summit will look into ways of reducing, preventing and overcoming terrorism and insecurity to enhance development while also taking into consideration socioeconomic and cultural issues. 

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In addition, the summit will take stock of the Group’s cooperation with the European Union, its key development partner.

About 19 heads of state and 1,500 delegates from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Member States are expected at the summit while President Uhuru Kenyatta will take over as the next president of the ACP Group for the next three years. The host country for the Summit assumes the presidency of the Group, until the next Summit. The 8th summit was held in Papua New Guinea.

The Summit comes at an auspicious time for the ACP Group as it prepares to finalise the Post-Cotonou negotiations as well as the revision to its Constitutive Act, the Georgetown Agreement.

At the 110th Session of the ACP Council of Ministers which will precede the Summit, Ministers will appoint the next Secretary General for the term 2020 to 2025. The tenure of the current Senior Management Team expires on 28 February 2020.

The first ACP Summit of Heads of State and Government was held in Libreville, Gabon, on 6 and 7 November 1997, during which the ACP Leaders undertook to meet on a regular basis. Consequently, ACP Heads of State and Government have met every two years on average.

List of ACP Countries

Angola – Antigua and Barbuda – Belize – Cape Verde – Comoros – Bahamas – Barbados – Benin – Botswana – Burkina Faso – Burundi – Cameroon – Central African Republic – Chad – Congo (Brazzaville) – Congo (Kinshasa) – Cook Islands – Cte d’Ivoire – Cuba – Djibouti – Dominica – Dominican Republic – Eritrea – Ethiopia – Fiji – Gabon – Gambia – Ghana – Grenada – Republic of Guinea – Guinea-Bissau – Equatorial Guinea – Guyana – Haiti – Jamaica – Kenya – Kiribati – Lesotho – Liberia – Madagascar – Malawi – Mali – Marshall Islands – Mauritania – Mauritius – Micronesia – Mozambique – Namibia – Nauru – Niger – Nigeria – Niue – Palau – Papua New Guinea – Rwanda – St. Kitts and Nevis – St. Lucia – St. Vincent and the Grenadines – Solomon Islands – Samoa – Sao Tome and Principe – Senegal – Seychelles – Sierra Leone – Somalia – South Africa – Sudan – Suriname – Swaziland – Tanzania – Timor Leste – Togo – Tonga – Trinidad and Tobago – Tuvalu – Uganda – Vanuatu – Zambia – Zimbabwe