Angolan succeeds Guyanese as ACP Secretary General

Last Updated on Sunday, 8 December 2019, 18:48 by Writer

(Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) Ambassador Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti, from Angola, is named the new Secretary General Designate of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States.

Ambassador Pinto — who was picked from among three candidates: an Angolan, a Zimbabwean and a Mozambican — is succeeding Mr. Patrick I. Gomes, a former deputy from Guyana.

Ambassador Pinto will be at the ACP helm for five years – March 2020-2025 – capitalizing on his 20 years of experience as foreign minister. He was Foreign Affairs minister until 2017 being further appointed Angola’s ambassador to the European Union, the Kingdom of Belgium and Luxembourg in 2018.

Mr. Gomes served as ACP Secretary General from 2015-2020 following his election at the 100th Session of the Group’s Council of Ministers, held at ACP Headquarters in Brussels on December 10, 2014.

The ACP is a group of 79 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific that was created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975.

All of the ACP members states, save Cuba, are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement, also known as the “ACP-EC Partnership Agreement” which binds them to the European Union.

The group’s main objectives are sustainable development and poverty reduction within its member states, as well as their greater integration into the world economy.

(This story has been edited from its original version.)