President William Ruto has announced that Kenya will host a major summit in Nairobi.
Kenya will host the Africa-France Summit in 2026, as announced during the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
“France and Kenya have agreed to jointly organize an Africa-France Summit in Nairobi in 2026. This decision was confirmed by the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and the President of the Republic of Kenya, William Ruto, during a meeting held this Wednesday, September 25th in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations’ General Assembly high-level week,” read a joint statement.
For the first time since its inception in 1973, the Africa-France Summit will take place outside of France or a Francophone African country.
“The historic announcement was made by Presidents William Ruto and Emmanuel Macron during the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York at the Paris Pact for the People and the Planet Coalition leaders’ lunch meeting hosted by President Macron,” State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed announced in a statement.
Details of Africa-France Summit to be Held in Kenya
The summit will bring together heads of state and government, civil society representatives, and private sector leaders.
According to State House, leaders and delegates attending the summit will discuss and advance reforms of global financial institutions and governance systems.
“The goal is to more effectively address the ongoing planetary crisis, an effort in which Kenya and France have been actively collaborating.”
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Picking Nairobi as the host is according to the French authorities an indication that its relations on the continent are not limited to their traditional French-speaking partners, but to all African countries.
This summit will also focus on solutions to challenges related to climate, environment and the reform of the international financial architecture, in favor of which the two heads of state are strongly mobilized.
It will further seek to foster a constructive form of multilateralism, in line with the Paris Pact for People and the Planet and the Nairobi Declaration which resulted from the Africa Climate Summit.
The last the “Africa-France Summit” took place on October 8, 2021, in Montpellier (southern France) and was attended by nearly 3,000 participants.
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Past Summit
For the first time since the inception of France-Africa summits in 1973, and the subsequent rebranding to “Africa-France,” no African heads of state were invited to the meeting.
The French presidency stated that the new format aimed to ensure “the voice of Africa’s youth is heard” and to “move away from obsolete methods and networks.
Invited guests included young entrepreneurs, artists, and athletes from the African continent, who met with their French counterparts and members of the African diaspora to discuss economic, political, and cultural issues.
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