After being excluded from recent meetings of the African Union with international partners such as China and Russia, the Polisario Front is determined to participate in the upcoming preparatory meeting between the European Union and the AU. This event, scheduled for May in Brussels, will bring together foreign ministers. Voices within the Front claim that their participation in this crucial meeting with the Twenty-Seven is assured, asserting that «France and Spain, in coordination with Morocco, have failed in their attempts to exclude the Sahrawi Republic from this summit». This confidence from the Polisario comes after the eighth summit between South Africa and the European Union, held on March 13 in Cape Town. Pretoria and Algiers have consistently advocated for the presence of the separatist movement in international meetings with regional organizations and global powers. However, their efforts to convince countries like Russia, China, South Korea, the United States, India, and Indonesia have failed. Even Italy, despite being a major economic partner of Algeria, ignored Algerian pressure to invite the Front to its summit with the AU in January 2024 in Rome. It is important to note that the Polisario has already participated in summits with the European Union, whether held in Europe or Africa. However, this participation no longer enjoys unanimous support among the Twenty-Seven, as evidenced by the cold reception given to Brahim Ghali at the last summit between the two continental organizations in February 2022 in Brussels. The separatist movement also participates, much to Tokyo's dismay, in Japan-Africa summits.
