00:00EU High Representative Kaya Callas is in West Africa seeking to deepen ties with Nigeria and
00:05Ghana. The EU unveiled new investment and cooperation deals with Nigeria while also
00:10stepping up security support for Ghana. For more, our Chief Africa Correspondent Jennifer
00:15Zavazaja joins us from Johannesburg. Jen, walk us through what's been announced.
00:21Yeah, Jumana, this was really an effort by the EU to deepen political, economic and security ties
00:27with the region, as you were just mentioning there. So what we saw, if we just start with Ghana,
00:33we did see the EU actually effectively signing the first African country to a formal defense and
00:41intelligence sharing agreement. This is significant because this will entail counterterrorism
00:46surveillance support and also crisis response. This is, of course, coming as we do see jihadist
00:52violence spreading across the Sahel. You mentioned in the intro, of course, some of the other
00:57investment pledges that we got from the EU and from Callas' trip to Nigeria in particular,
01:03she announced a 290 million euro package for projects that include digital infrastructure,
01:10health manufacturing, agriculture and migration management. So really, all in all, what we did
01:16see from this trip and what we heard from Callas throughout the past few days is that it seems like
01:21this is a bit of a shift for the EU into a bit more of a strategic focus into security
01:27and also
01:28investment-driven partnerships with some of the West African states and those along the Gulf of Guinea.
01:37What is driving this renewed push by the EU in West Africa, Jen?
01:44I think really, Jamana, we have to look at this in a few different parts. I mentioned the fact that
01:50this is really a three for, if we take a look at the investments and the announcements that were
01:55made over the past few days, economic, political and security. Over the past few years, we have
02:01continued to see security be threatened in what have been traditionally stable countries along the Gulf of
02:09Guinea. So part of this, if you look at it from the EU perspective, they see this as a way
02:14to not
02:14only protect some of the stability and the stabilization efforts of some of these African
02:19countries, but we also heard how this could potentially impact migration into Europe more
02:24broadly. If we take a look at it from the economic perspective, some of the Nigeria announcements
02:29around investment partnerships could be opportunities for European companies to invest in some of the
02:36Nigerian companies. We've seen quite a lot of activity as far as the startup space and entrepreneurs
02:42coming out of Nigeria. And really, and I think perhaps most strategically, we should take a look
02:48at what we've seen over the past few years. We've seen a bit of dominance from China and Russia in
02:54the
02:54region, especially if you look at what has been a bit of a retreat from France in some cases in
03:01some of
03:01these countries. And so perhaps this is a doubling down of the EU and seeing a way to at least
03:07position
03:08themselves strategically with some of these countries that are very important for not only their own
03:14national and the bloc zone interest, but potentially the interest of some of these states on the continent.
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