Chairperson, the ACDP will support this Budget Vote 3 on International Relations and Co-operation. We want to encourage government to continue rejecting attempts by the current chairman of the AU, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, to coerce African states into forming the United States of Africa. We believe that priority should be given to strengthening regional bodies like SADC.
We further want to appeal to government to resist Muammar Gaddafi's reported alleged attempts to persuade African countries, including South Africa, which have ratified the International Criminal Court Treaty, to limit co-operation with it. This is particularly because the African countries he has targeted concluded that the ICC, International Criminal Court, was pursuing the same basic goals as the AU, and that the AU should engage more with the court. We appreciate South Africa's stance in saying we would not agree with Muammar Gaddafi. Thank you.