Luanda, 24 November 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Leaders from European Union and African Union nations are set to convene for a two-day summit in Angola on Monday, as a whirlwind of international diplomacy continues on the continent.

The seventh EU-AU summit in Luanda comes on the heels of a G20 summit in Johannesburg, the first such meeting on African soil.

Those talks were overshadowed by frantic discussions on the controversial US peace plan for Ukraine. The Luanda summit might suffer a similar fate, as EU leaders including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are set to continue consultations on the war on the sidelines of the meeting.

On the first day of the summit, EU and AU representatives are set to cover a range of issues, including peace, security and multilateral cooperation, migration, mobility and prosperity, before a joint declaration is released on Tuesday.

The EU currently deploys 12 civilian and military missions and operations on the continent, including in Libya, Mali, Somalia and the Central African Republic, most of which are aimed at supporting counter-terrorism efforts, increasing stability and conflict prevention.

But both sides are also looking to further increase cooperation across other areas, 25 years since the first EU-AU summit was held in Cairo in 2000.

Collectively, the EU constitutes the most important trading partner for the African continent, while the African nations as a whole are the fourth largest trading partner of the EU, according to EU figures.

In 2023, the bloc was the "leading supplier of foreign direct investment" to Africa with some €239 billion ($275 billion), according to the European Commission.

Photo: epa archive