As world leaders gathered in New York for the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, a crucial question hung over the continent’s security debate: can the principle of good neighborliness actually stop terrorism from crossing Africa’s porous frontiers? Benin’s foreign minister, Corinne Amori Brunet, put that question squarely on the table on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, when she chaired the 1369th ministerial meeting of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council (PSC). The session, held on the sidelines of the UN gathering, brought together representatives of PSC member states, regional organizations and international partners under the theme “Good Neighborliness and Regional Responses to Security and Terrorism Challenges in Africa.”
A question of survival for border communities
Opening the proceedings, Brunet argued that cooperation between neighboring states must sit at the heart of any response to threats that ignore borders. She pointed out that while frontiers mark territories and sovereignties, they are also living spaces where people work, trade and maintain family and cultural ties. When insecurity takes root there, its fallout inevitably spills beyond a single country. For Benin, good neighborliness must translate into concrete action: an effective state presence, rapid information sharing, cooperation between security services and judicial authorities, and the protection of legitimate cross-border trade that local populations depend on.
Benin’s diplomatic doctrine under Romuald Wadagni
This approach reflects the broader neighborhood diplomacy championed by Benin’s President, Romuald Wadagni, who has made dialogue with neighboring countries, security and regional cooperation central pillars of the country’s foreign policy. Brunet stressed that this cooperation must be preserved even when political relations between states pass through tense periods. In Benin’s view, the challenge is less about creating new frameworks than about better coordinating existing mechanisms and adapting them to the realities on the ground.
Women as frontline actors in border security
The meeting also placed the role of communities living in border areas—and particularly women—back at the center of the discussion. Their knowledge of local realities and their closeness to communities make them essential assets for identifying tensions, helping prevent them and informing peace and security decisions. This priority builds on the second high-level ministerial seminar of the Swakopmund process on “Women, Peace and Security,” held in Cotonou on September 9 and 10, 2026. The New York meeting extended that momentum by linking women’s participation to prevention and security challenges in border territories.
What comes next after the PSC presidency
Through this ministerial meeting, Benin pursued the priorities it championed during its September presidency of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council: crisis prevention, grounding decisions in field realities, greater participation of women and stronger cooperation between neighboring states. The country’s diplomatic sequence in New York continues on Monday, September 28, when the foreign minister will address the UN General Assembly during its general debate.
The stakes are clear: if good neighborliness is to become more than a slogan, it will need to deliver visible security gains for the communities living along Africa’s most exposed borders.
