European Union and Government of Burundi held a second round of talks on Friday as a follow up on dialogue since President Evariste Ndayishimiye came to power.
Burundi and EU had frozen relations for almost five years until they opened dialogue in December last year.
President Ndayishimiye last year received in audience the Ambassador of the European Union to Burundi, Claude Bochu, along with the Ambassadors of Germany, Belgium and France.
“It is high time to resolve misunderstandings with mutual respect,” the EU said after meeting with President Ndayishimiye.
There are 6 priorities of President Ndayishimiye including; good governance, public health, education, agriculture and livestock, free healthcare for retirees and youth development.
On December 11, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Albert Shingiro, invited to lunch the Ambassador of the European Union and all the ambassadors of the member countries of the EU present in Burundi. It was during this lunch that the expert teams from the EU and the Foreign Ministry were set up to prepare for a meeting between Minister Shingiro and the European Union and its member states.
Meanwhile, Burundi is no longer considered “a risk factor on the continent”, the Security Council having removed it from its agenda on December 4.
Albert Shingiro, Burundi’a Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation says, “We are confident that this temperature will reach the normal level of warming at the end of this dialogue that we are entering into today with shared determination and wills.”
