The 2024 Nordic-African Foreign Ministers’ Meeting: Fostering Multilateralism and Trade Partnerships

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr. Naledi Pandor will officially visit Denmark to participate in the 2024 Nordic-African Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, set for Copenhagen on May 2–3. This year’s two days of the annual conference have the theme “Multilateralism and Increasing Trade and Investment.”

Several African foreign affairs ministers, or their representatives, have confirmed their presence. In 2000, the Nordic-Africa Foreign Ministers Meeting was established between five Nordic countries and ten African countries. Its goal was to demonstrate Africa’s political importance and the fact that Nordic-African relations went beyond development cooperation.

African countries have the opportunity at the conference to exchange notes with their northern counterparts on significant global trends and concerns. It also serves as a springboard for future growth to increase commerce and investment between the countries of Africa and the Nordic region. Two private plenary sessions of the Nordic-African Foreign Ministers Meeting will address global governance, international financial architecture, and partnerships in the African century.

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Moreover, ministers from Africa and the Nordic region will co-chair two separate roundtable discussions at the conference to discuss the theme “Peace and Security Will Take Place.”

There are also two panel discussions planned:

(i) A youth panel consisting of five young people and two foreign ministers—one from Africa and the other from the Nordic region—will address youth and economic ties between the two continents.

(ii) An African and Norwegian research-policy discussion will address economic collaboration in a complicated era and how the two regions might work together to preserve peace and advance development.

The African-Nordic Business Meeting on May 3, 2024, will look at methods to increase trade and investment between the two continents.

During the business gathering, there will be three panel discussions with business group representatives, trade representatives from the Nordic and African regions, and foreign ministers. The business gathering will feature three panels: one focusing on food value chains, another on enhancing collaboration and trade, and a third on green transition and digitization.

Minister Pandor plans to have bilateral talks with a few chosen colleagues from both Nordic and African countries when she is in Denmark.