Chairperson, Minister of Foreign Affairs, I think the treaty we are ratifying today, as the Council, is very important to South Africa and, particularly, to the continent as a whole. I am just going to deal with one or two of the objectives as outlined in the treaty. One of them is to co-ordinate and harmonise the policies between the existing and future regional economic communities for the gradual attainment of the objective of the union, the objective being to advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, particularly in science and technology.
I am referring to these two objectives because our continent has particular challenges. Many governments on our continent have serious debt problems, and their campaigns to be relieved of those difficulties are met with complicated procedures. Therefore, in the co-ordination and harmonisation process, we shall have to deal with these difficult circumstances. Again, the fact that some regions are more advanced than others on the continent also poses a serious challenge, but I think it is an initiative worth putting effort into. As the Minister has indicated, this treaty will be realised in the long term, and we dare not fail to rise to the challenge of integrating our continent as a whole.
As we move forward we have to be very careful that every country which is part of this treaty contributes equally, and also that South Africa, as we have demanded from time to time, leads this continent. I do not think we should shy away from that responsibility. This treaty, in my view, will help Africans, in particular, to eliminate some of the elements around xenophobia, because the treaty is very comprehensive in its approach. It deals with culture and every other element that we can think of. I think all the visions and issues that are espoused in this document should be supported. And, I think, improvements are going to be made as we proceed with the treaty, even for those who are sceptical of the treaty at the moment as their issues can be accommodated in future.
I think there are things we are going to learn. We can learn from the EU experience when they established their own union. I do not think we can make the effort, then wait for the process to stall us. We have to continue, because we dare not fail all Africans on this continent. [Applause.]