SADC and EU to hold a Ministerial Partnership Dialogue on 15 March 2025, in Harare, Zimbabwe

7 March 2025, Gaborone, Botswana: A Ministerial Partnership Dialogue between the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the European Union (EU) will be held on 15 March 2025, in Harare, Republic of Zimbabwe, where the two parties will engage on issues of mutual interest, including peace and security, human and sustainable development, climate change, environment, trade and investment. 

Honourable Prof. Amon Murwira, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Top of Form and current Chairperson of the SADC Council of Ministers will co-chair the Dialogue with the Honourable Radosław Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Poland, representing the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission. 

The Dialogue serves as a platform to reinforce the relations between SADC and the EU and promote cooperation in peace and security, trade and policies aimed at sustainable economic growth and economic reforms in the SADC Region. The Dialogue will deliberate on global, continental and regional issues impacting on the peace and security situation of the region and beyond, as well as on development and cooperation. It will take stock of the progress in the implementation of the SADC-EU Cooperation and the 2021-2027 Multiannual Indicative Programmme for Sub-Saharan Africa (MIP SSA).

The two parties will also celebrate their partnership and the successful implementation of cooperation and financing agreements supporting SADC regional programmes in the areas of peace and security, trade in services, market access, institutional capacity building, natural resources management, transboundary water management, strategic corridors and agriculture, and digital transformation. 

SADC will be represented by its “Double Troika” Member States the Republic of Zimbabwe (Chair), the Republic of Angola (former Chair) and the Republic of Madagascar (incoming Chair), as well as the three countries leading the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs: the Republic of Malawi, the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Zambia, and by the SADC Secretariat.  The EU will be represented by Minister Radosław Sikorski, high-level officials from the European External Action Service (EEAS), the European Commission, the Government of Poland, as well as by the EU Ambassadors to Botswana and SADC, and to Zimbabwe. The Ministerial Dialogue will be preceded by the SADC and EU Senior Officials’ Dialogue on 14 March 2025.

The SADC-EU Political Dialogue was launched at the SADC-EU Ministerial Conference in Berlin, Germany, in September 1994, wherein both parties reaffirmed their determination to reinforce their relationship and to establish a comprehensive dialogue. 

The Dialogue will be convened in line with a resolution of the SADC-EU Ministerial Dialogue held in March 2013 in Maputo, Mozambique, wherein both parties agreed that the Senior Officials’ Meeting is to be convened annually whilst the Ministerial Political Dialogue is to be held once every two years, with the hosting role alternating between the EU and SADC regions. 

For more information, contact: 

For SADC Secretariat: Barbara Lopi, Head of Communication and Public Relations. Email: blopi@sadc.int 

For the EU: Alexandra Maseko, Press and Information Officer, EU Delegation to Zimbabwe. Email: alexandra.maseko@eeas.europa.eu

SADC in Brief 

SADC is an organisation of 16 Member States established in 1980 as the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC) and later, in August,1992 transformed into the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The mission of SADC is to promote sustainable and equitable economic growth and socio-economic development through efficient, productive systems, deeper cooperation and integration, good governance and durable peace and security; so that the region emerges as a competitive and effective player in international relations and the world economy. Member States are Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

EU in Brief 

The European Union (EU) is a unique economic and political union between 27 European countries. The objectives of the EU are to safeguard peace and to ensure economic and social progress through the creation of a European internal market and the strengthening of social cohesion. Over the years, the EU saw its competences expanded through successive treaties. While its vocation was initially primarily economic – with the creation of a huge single market, the European Union has become an eminently political entity. From six founding countries – or Member States – in the 1950s, it has grown into a Union of 27 countries with a population of almost 450 million people, expanding over nearly the whole European continent.