OP-ED: AU–EU Summit in Luanda: Somalia’s Voice and the New Africa–Europe Bargain

LUANDA, Angola - When African and European leaders gathered in Luanda on 24–25 November 2025 for the seventh AU–EU Summit, they did so against a backdrop of growing impatience in many capitals across the continent. The summit — convened to mark 25 years of a formal AU–EU partnership and billed under the theme “Promoting Peace and Prosperity through Effective Multilateralism” — produced a joint declaration and the ritual of mutual pledges.

Yet for countries like Somalia, which shoulder distinct security burdens and possess untapped economic potential, the test of Luanda is not the language of communiqués but whether Europe and Africa will finally reshape their relationship to address asymmetries of power, finance and strategic priorities.

Luanda was useful for reminding the world that the AU-EU relationship persists, and that the two blocs still see reasons for collaboration — in trade, climate, migration, and security. But beneath the headlines lies a more urgent conversation about the terms of that partnership.

The Angolan AU Chair, President João Lourenço, used his platform to call for fairer debt-restructuring mechanisms and innovative financing — a demand that is increasingly impossible to ignore as a number of African states face serious debt distress. That is not an abstract technicality; it is the difference between governments being able to invest in hospitals, ports and schools, or being forced to service obligations that perpetuate dependency. The summit’s emphasis on reforming global financial architecture was therefore a welcome, if overdue, acknowledgment of an existential constraint on African development.

From Mogadishu’s vantage point, three pillars should determine how Somalia — and the Horn — judge the summit’s outcomes: credible security partnerships, catalytic investment for the blue economy and youth, and a recalibration of finance that recognizes Africa’s vulnerabilities and aspirations.

First, security. Somalia remains at the frontline of a violent insurgency and maritime insecurity that threaten regional stability and international trade routes. Delegations from Mogadishu in Luanda led by Deputy Prime Minister Salah Ahmed Jama emphasised the need for sustained, predictable and practical security cooperation that places Somali priorities at the centre.

Somalia’s diplomats are right to insist that security assistance must go beyond sporadic military hardware or short-term capacity building; it must support integrated approaches that combine judicial reform, police professionalisation, border management and inclusive political processes. If the AU-EU partnership is serious about peace, it must support Somali-led strategies rather than exporting templates that have failed elsewhere.

Second, the blue economy and youth employment. Somalia’s coastline is a strategic asset — fisheries, shipping lanes and potentially transformational offshore resources. Yet foreign investment in coastal states too often skews toward extractive projects with limited local linkages. The Luanda joint declaration’s commitments on trade, investment and clean energy could translate into targeted programmes that seed local entrepreneurship, port modernization, and value-chain development.

European capital, if paired with African regulatory sovereignty and safeguards for coastal communities, can catalyse jobs for the very young populations that drive both hope and instability in Somalia. The summit’s language on investment and youth was promising; the proof will be in project design and transparent delivery.

Third, finance. It was notable that African leaders pressed for more effective debt tools in Luanda; the question for Somalia and its peers is whether the international system will move from bureaucratic rescheduling to genuine refinancing and solidarity. For fragile states, punitive debt conditions choke off fiscal space at the same time as they face security shocks, drought and forced displacement.

The AU’s push in Luanda — echoed by the UN Secretary-General — for a reimagined global financial architecture is not a partisan demand but an urgent policy corrective if the 25-year partnership is to have moral and material credibility. The AU-EU joint declaration acknowledged these points; now the continents must transform pledge into practice.

Yet a sober reading of Luanda requires uncomfortable truths. European foreign policy remains shaped by immediate geopolitical anxieties — from the war in Ukraine to Mediterranean migration politics — that sometimes produce a reflexive urgency to securitise relationships with African states.

 African leaders, in turn, have grown weary of conditionality and messaging that presumes to know what is best for them. If the AU-EU partnership is to be renewed in good faith, it must rest on parity: African ownership of priorities, transparent European financing aligned to African plans, and mutual respect for sovereignty. In practice this means fewer top-down projects and more co-designed programmes with measurable benchmarks and local accountability.

For Somalia specifically, Luanda offers a provisional opportunity. The Somali delegation including state minister for foreign affairs and Ambassador Mohamed Sheikh Isack — who publicly used the summit to highlight gains in governance and to press for deeper economic ties — should now insist on concrete follow-through: a package to bolster maritime security co-operation that enhances Somali sovereignty over its waters; investment guarantees to attract responsible European capital into ports and fisheries; and access to concessional financing that allows the Somali state to invest in infrastructure and human capital without mortgaging the future. These are not small asks; they require a European willingness to accept some risk and an African willingness to insist on transparent procurement and anti-corruption safeguards.

Finally, diplomacy must not be reduced to photo-ops. The real test of Luanda is whether the AU-EU machinery will now embed monitoring, mutual accountability, and a timetable for delivering tangible outcomes in countries such as Somalia. Civil society and youth — who convened in Luanda alongside official leaders — deserve a central role in oversight; their energy and scrutiny will be essential to ensure promises become projects, and projects become livelihoods.

Luanda showed that multilateralism still has a pulse. But it also exposed an old tension: Africa seeks a partnership that catalyses self-determination and development; Europe wants stability and strategic alignment. Bridging that gap will require statesmanship of a rare kind — patient, ambitious and honest. From Mogadishu’s perspective, the imperative is simple: turn rhetoric into resources that build Somali capacity and sustain Somali agency. If the AU-EU partnership cannot deliver that, it will be remembered in the Horn not as a celebration of 25 years, but as another conference with good words and few results.

Nevertheless, Somalia’s diplomacy at Luanda has been measured and forthright. The next act must be implementation — and for that, African and European capitals alike must accept that real partnership is less about choreographing summits and more about sharing risk, ceding control where appropriate, and investing in institutions that make sovereignty meaningful for people on the ground. Only then will the promises of Luanda ring true in Mogadishu and beyond.

The author is Abdirahman Jeylani Mohamed, the Director-General of Arlaadi Media Network, a foreign policy journalist and communications specialist. You can reach out to him at Twitter/X: @JaylaaniJr