Ladies and gentlemen, Ministers of ECOWAS,
Ladies and gentlemen Ministers of ECCAS,
Mr. President of the ECOWAS Commission,
Mr. Secretary General of ECCAS,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Togo feels honored every time it hosts an event of this level. I would like, on behalf of the President of the Togolese Republic and President-in-Office of ECOWAS, Mr. Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBE, to welcome you to our cosmopolitan city where no visitor is foreign.

You are at home and I invite you to feel at ease. The Latin poet and playwright Terence, to whom some people of African origins, said in a very Togolese accent: “I am a man, and I do not consider anything human as foreign to me.” Anyone who visits Togo sees and lives his regime humanist of hospitality. For Togo, the reception of the other, whoever he may be, wherever he comes from, is more than a duty. The human being wherever it happens, said the philosopher Kant in his book Project of perpetual peace, has the right to hospitality. Moreover, the value of hospitality is one of the values ​​that our African societies still have to teach in the world. You will not deny me!

Ministers, dear colleagues,

Your presence in Lome responds to an imperative of the day: that of interregional cooperation to better face some of the crucial common challenges facing our two regions. It reflects the empowering or empowering option of ECCAS and ECOWAS for working in cooperation. I welcome this spirit between our two regional communities and remain convinced that the integration project at the African level requires strengthening regional and interregional cooperation. The joint organization of this summit is an example of successful intra-African cooperation.

We need to intensify cooperation between our communities. The joint organization of this ECCAS and ECOWAS summit on peace, security, stability and the fight against violent extremism and terrorism is proof that interregional cooperation is under way in Africa. Cooperation, by its Latin etymology, means working together on a common work. ECCAS and ECOWAS have understood that together we must take responsibility for the security of our interregional space and the Summit of Heads of State and Government of 30 July which will be sanctioned by a joint declaration is a very important one. beautiful illustration.
Violent extremism and terrorism, wherever they may be, threaten peace and stability wherever they may be. By coming together to face the extremist and terrorist dangers together, our two communities have taken the measure of danger and realized that synergistic action is a guarantee of effectiveness. By taking the initiative of this summit, the two Presidents-in-Office of ECCAS and ECOWAS as well as the two Community Institutions have understood that the form taken today by the security challenges and the uncertainties they induce in terms of development and human security makes synergistic action indispensable. The challenge being collective, the response or the action must be too.
Security is a vital human need, a community and interregional public good that we must defend at all costs. “There are just wars,” says André MALRAUX in one of his books whose title is L’espoir. The war against terrorism and for regional and interregional security and stability is a just war. No progress and human development without peace and security.

The military response is needed against the danger of extremism and terrorism, but it is not a sufficient remedy. Our two regions are destined to win the war against ignorance, radicalization, fundamentalism and extremism. It is a question of weaning the terrorism of its favorable grounds by the prevention which implies the education with lucidity. It is through lucid education that we will be right about the indoctrination, radicalism and extremism that feeds terrorism. To overcome terrorism, we must win the fight of education, here understood in the holistic sense of the term.
By reiterating my fraternal welcome to our capital, in your capital, I wish you a pleasant and pleasant stay in Lome.

Thank you.