On 17 September, SRSG Parfait Onanga-Anyanga attended the 4^th AU-EU-UN Trilateral Meeting held at UN Headquarters in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), along with the Chairperson of the AUC, Moussa Faki Mahamat; the President of the European Council, Charles Michel; the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of the European Commission, Joseph Borrell; the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres; and senior officials from the three organizations. The meeting was an opportunity for the three organizations to meet at Principals level to discuss areas of cooperation and strengthen collaboration to address global challenges. The meeting underscored the importance of exchanging views on key issues, taking stock of ongoing cooperation, and renewing support for effective multilateral solutions facilitated by the three organizations.  

As a result of the meeting, the three organizations adopted a Joint Communiqué, in which they expressed full solidarity with the people and authorities of Libya and Morocco, recently struck by natural disasters. In the Communiqué, they reaffirmed their commitment to promote effective multilateralism and welcomed the extension of the G20 membership to the AU. They discussed the situation in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes regions and called for a more robust action to solve ongoing crises; they expressed continuing strong support for predictable financing of AU-led PSOs. They also discussed actions needed to accelerate just transition and climate justice and, in this context, looked forward to an ambitious outcome of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28); they further expressed their solidarity with migrants and refugees that face haunting conditions on their road to Europe and exchanged views on ways to accelerate action to address irregular migration and its root causes in a joined-up manner.

They welcomed the continued efforts of the EU-AU-UN Tripartite Task Force on the Situation of Migrants and Refugees in Libya and called for enhanced regional cooperation and solutions, which must place human rights and the dignity of migrants and refugees front and centre. The three organizations recognized the importance of collaborative partnerships for mutual benefit, whereby Africa and Europe work together in support of peace and sustainable development, reform of the international financial architecture, Africa’s fair representation in global institutions, the diversification of supply chains towards Africa and the promotion of investments. The three organizations agreed to reconvene in 2024.