Can Angola advance African leadership as AU chair?
African Union chairship should allow Angola to put its peacebuilding, economic development and diplomacy strengths to good use.
Angola’s ascension to AU Assembly chair was among the most significant outcomes of the 38th AU Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa. Coinciding with its 50th anniversary, the announcement followed a clear-cut nomination that was less problematic to the southern African region than Mauritania’s chairship, which was a regional compromise among northern African states.
The office of the chair of the Assembly, which is mandated by Article 6(4) of the AU Constitutive Act, serves as a platform for advancing Africa’s interests on the global stage and has increasingly been used to also promote the national interests of successive chairs within continental affairs. As a result, it has evolved into a position of prestige and diplomatic influence. What comparative advantages could President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço bring to the AU office?
Recent gains
Angola’s chairship follows a period of spearheading Africa’s progress and positioning it internationally, including the continent’s contribution to COP28 in 2023. The 2023 to 2024 tenure also advanced Africa’s global representation following AU’s admission to the G20.
Angola’s role follows years of chairs advancing Africa’s progress and positioning it globally
Under the leadership of President Azali Assoumani of the Comoros, the continent sustained engagements on major dedicated platforms, including Africa+1 summits, and led important advocacy for sustainable blue-economy management. While Mauritania’s leadership was more subdued, the education summit in Nouakchott in December 2024 reflected efforts to promote the AU’s theme of the year, ‘Educate an African fit for the 21st century’.
Angola’s priorities
In his first speech as chair at the opening of the 2025 AU summit, Lourenço outlined his priorities, among them enhanced transport links and connectivity infrastructure to accelerate intra-African trade. Focus, he said, will also be on energy and natural resource management, leveraging Angola’s oil surplus to support African needs while pushing for renewable investments. Peace and security will also feature strongly, particularly support for peace mediation efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In addition, Angola’s agenda includes sustainable development of both agriculture and the blue economy to reduce migration of Africans to Europe.
Other issues are strengthening continental integration through the African Continental Free-trade Area by investing in education and capacity building, and forming strategic partnerships ahead of the fourth development conference in Spain in June 2025. The latter is an opportunity to redefine Africa’s standing in the global financial architecture in line with the central goal to ‘invest in infrastructure as a factor for Africa’s development’.
Angola’s advantage
Angola has been strategic in several priorities but only three clearly leverage the country’s experience in achieving continental goals. The first is its priority on energy and natural resources. Given its position as Africa’s second-largest crude petroleum exporter and third-largest diamond exporter, the country is well placed to promote continental value-addition mechanisms to contribute to economic transformation.
There is ample opportunity to promote the ratification and implementation of the African Natural Resource Management and Investments Agreement and the Lomé Charter on Maritime Security to promote Africa’s natural resource governance frameworks. Angola can advance the alignment of national laws with the 2009 Africa Mining Vision, which promotes value addition in natural resource management. It must also prioritise the extractives industries transparency initiatives to project the goodwill needed to promote enhanced natural resource and energy governance goals.
Rich in petroleum and diamonds, Angola is well positioned to contribute to economic transformation
Furthermore, its US$2 billion Lobito Corridor Project (LCP) linking Zambia and the DRC’s copper/cobalt regions to the Atlantic part of Lobito offers insights and experiences that can inform its leadership in improving connectivity. By positioning the project as a model for African high-speed rail development, Angola can push for the modernisation and expansion of the existing railway infrastructure. This will go far in developing the transport infrastructure in line with the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa. This involves particularly the development of rail connections among regional enclaves conducive to expanding intra-African trade.
Lastly, Lourenço can call on his country’s experience to address peace and security. Angola’s peacebuilding credentials prompted the AU Commission to name it – more than 20 years after it ended its civil war – champion for peace and reconciliation in Africa.
Will peace-brokering experience matter?
Angola's regional peace-broker status is reinforced by its mediation in the Southern African Development Community (SADC)-sponsored Luanda process resolving tensions between Rwanda and the DRC over eastern DRC. This is concurrent with Angola's chairship of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region, experience as the immediate past chair of SADC and membership from 2024 to 2026 of the AU Peace and Security Council.
While this overlapping regional and continental leadership positions Angola well to amplify its influence across both spheres, being stretched too thinly could impede its ability to achieve continental outcomes and establish a clear legacy. Managing this challenge effectively will be crucial for Angola to be recognised for the impact of its leadership. On the other hand, given Angola’s involvement in mediating the tension between the DRC and Rwanda, President Lourenço is well positioned to be a key actor in harmonising regional and continental efforts to help bring peace to the DRC.
Making the chairship count
While Angola assumes the chairship at a crucial time in the AU’s history, its ability to advance ongoing gains in Africa’s engagement with the world will require both continuity and strategic innovation. This is relevant as Africa seeks to consolidate its position in the global governance architecture following milestones such as G20 membership and increased participation in international negotiations on climate action, trade and security.
Being stretched too thinly could prevent Angola from achieving outcomes and creating a clear legacy
To make its chairship count, Angola must navigate the complex landscape of continental and international diplomacy through impact-driven engagement. This means ensuring that its core focuses of energy and resource governance, transport and connectivity, and peace and security are not only well articulated but backed by actionable frameworks, financing mechanisms and sustained diplomacy.
Success hinges on balancing wide-ranging diplomatic responsibilities with clear deliverables. Rather than over-extending itself, it must identify and champion high-impact initiatives aligned with its comparative advantages and that can leave a lasting legacy. These include securing concrete commitments in infrastructure financing, advancing DRC peace mediation and promoting energy policies that integrate traditional resource extraction with renewable investments.
Ultimately, Angola’s ability to steer the AU towards measurable outcomes will determine whether its leadership is viewed as merely symbolic or as a substantive contribution to Africa’s progress. By leveraging its peacebuilding experience, economic strengths and strategic diplomatic position, it can ensure that its tenure produces tangible achievements that strengthen the continent’s integration, stability and global standing.
