Liberia Heads Committee Of Ambassadors & Council Of Ministers

His Excellency, Isaac W. Nyenabo II, Ambassador of the Republic of Liberia, has taken over the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ambassadors (CoA) of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) for the next six months, until January 2024. Ambassador Nyenabo II succeeds the out-going Chairman, His Excellency Sutiawan Gunessee, Ambassador of the Republic of Mauritius, following the handover meeting held on September 1, 2023.

    According to a dispatch from Brussels by Senve Darlington Tehmeh, Minister-Counselor in-charge of Public Diplomacy, Liberia’s presidency will focus on the following priority areas: the signing of the new OACPS-EU Agreement (Samoa Agreement), COP 28, the diversification of partnerships, the mobilization of resources and the completion of the reform and restructuring of the OACPS.

   The achievements of the out-going Bureau, under the leadership of His Excellency Sutiawan Gunessee, were widely praised at the meeting, in particular the considerable efforts made to defend the interests of OACPS, notably in resolving the difficulties associated with the signing of the Samoa Agreement.

   For the period of the 1^st of August 2023 to the 31^st of January 2024 the in-coming Bureau, under the leadership of Liberia, comprises: West Africa–Ambassador Samuel Tamba MUSA of Sierra Leone; East Africa–Ambassador Aden Mohamed Dileita of Djibouti; Central Africa, Ambassador Christian Ndongala Nkuku of the Democratic Republic of Congo; Southern Africa–Ambassador Ammon Mutembwa of Zimbabwe; The Caribbean–Ambassador Gilbert A. van Lierop of Suriname; and the Pacific–Ambassador Jorge Trindade Neves de CAMÕES of Timor Leste.

   The Bureau of the Committee of Ambassadors, which coordinates the work of the full committee, comprises one representative from each of the six regions of the OACPS, as well as a Troika comprised of the current, out-going and in-coming Chairs. The current Troika includes the Ambassadors of Liberia, The Republic of Mauritius, and the representative of the Caribbean region, which will be next to hold the presidency.