Tackling the year-long conflict in Central African Republic was one of the top priorities for leaders at the fourth-ever EU-Africa summit that opened on Wednesday.<br /><br />The two days of talks in Brussels come after a long-delayed EU military mission was finally deployed to the war-torn country.<br /><br />Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the president of Mauritania and the current chair of the African Union, told euronews: “We cannot talk about development without discussing security. Because it’s the foundations upon which development is based. You cannot invest in an area where there is no security.”<br /><br />Other key issues to be debated include ways Europe and Africa can boost bilateral trade.<br /><br />But some analysts say such meetings can often fail to yield any concrete results.<br /><br />Sanoussi Bilal of the European Centre for Development Policy Management said the summit should focus on “addressing the real issues”. <br /><br />“What are the next opportunities and how maybe a new generation of leaders both in Africa and Europe can take the relationship forward to the benefits of both continents?” he said.<br /><br />“(This) is still a bit lacking in this summit – and i don’t expect much out of this discussions that are happening in this next two days.”<br /><br />More than 80 heads of state and government are attending.<br /><br />Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is staying away, however.<br /><br />EU officials refused to list a travel ban on his wife.
