LUANDA, Angola, CMC — The 79-member Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) wrapped up its 10th Head of States and Governments Summit here with its Secretary General, Georges Chikoti calling on the European Union (EU), its main development partner, to sign the new agreement governing their cooperation over the next 20 years.

OACPS member states have agreed that the signing will take place in Samoa, hopefully before the end of 2023.

However, on the EU side, Hungary has raised issues with certain elements of the new accord, which will replace the Cotonou Agreement, and is yet to commit to signing.

In a post-summit interview, Chikoti told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), that the signing has been postponed three times and this “raises doubts”.

“It is already agreed among the OACPS member states that the agreement will be signed in Samoa. So we are ready to do that. Now we’ve got to prepare ourselves. When? We need a date,” Chikoti said.

“So we’re waiting for this date since last year, and we’ve already postponed the post-Cotonou about three times and so it doesn’t look good because we initialled the post-Cotonou agreement in April 2021. So, I think that it is now time that we really finish with the signing ceremony so that it enters into force,” he said.

He noted that negotiations began in 2018 and were completed in 2020, ahead of the April 2021 initialling.

“And since then, here we are. So it raises doubts. It also raises the fact that there is a commitment. So among us, we believe that the agreement will be signed and we are 79. And it doesn’t look good that because of one country on the other side, we can’t sign,” Chikoti said without identifying the EU nation that is reluctant to sign.