The EU-Africa summit, which opens in Cairo on Monday, will bring together the most high-powered representatives of the world's largest trading bloc and the leaders of some of its poorest nations.
Its aim, in the words of its Portuguese sponsors, is no less than "the creation of a new partnership between the two continents" and the liquidation of the European powers' "colonial mortgage" on Africa.
Ireland will be represented in the Egyptian capital by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Overseas Development, Ms Liz O'Donnell. Representing the European Commission will be its President, Mr Romano Prodi, and three Commissioners, Mr Chris Patten (External Affairs), Mr Pascal Lamy (Trade) and Mr Poul Nielson (Development). In all, 67 heads of state and government will attend.
The summit, which has been in gestation for four years, comes in the context of what is seen as a significant demotion of Africa in the hierarchy of concerns of the West, following the end of active Cold War competition on the continent and the EU's new opening to the east.
It is perhaps not coincidental that it is Portugal, the state geographically most removed from this opening, that has been the diplomatic prime mover in advancing the summit idea, and it is fitting that it should come to fruition during the term of its EU presidency.
The perceived decline in EU interest in and engagement with the problems of Africa has coincided with a marked deterioration of the political and security situation in many countries and regions of the continent.
Civil conflicts have broken out in Sierra Leone and Liberia and continue in Angola and Sudan; Somalia is still without a government and in a state of anarchy, while the entire Congo-Great Lakes region has been destabilised in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.
At the same time there have been pressing security concerns for Europe nearer home. OECD statistics from 1999 show that the top 10 recipients of EU aid are all located in North Africa, the Middle East, central and eastern Europe and the Balkans. It is, of course, quite legitimate for Europe to be mindful of its immediate security interests, but the figures do at least illustrate that there is no necessary connection between spending on aid and the alleviation of the most extreme concentrations of poverty.
There is also a feeling, though one that is seldom openly articulated, that while the problems of Poland or Bulgaria or even Palestine may in the long run be soluble, Africa, unfortunately, will always be Africa.
And so we have a shrugging of the shoulders, a stopping of the ears, the emergence at the high political level of a state of mind analogous to "compassion fatigue" occasionally detected at the level of society.
It is this malaise which the Cairo summit seeks to address. From the European perspective it is intended, in the words of the Portuguese Prime Minister, Mr Antonio Guterres, as a message to Africa that it is not forgotten and that its concerns will not be ignored in the changing international order.
For the Africans, Cairo presents the opportunity to articulate collectively and in strength exactly what their most urgent requirements are over a whole range of issues, including debt relief, trade, investment, technology transfer, health, education, environment and assistance in conflict prevention, management and resolution.
As is the case in all summits of this size and complexity, the proceedings of the actual sessions are for the most part a formality, agreement having been previously worked out over a long period by teams of officials.
In the case of Cairo, this process is continuing right down to the wire, with a final meeting of high-level officials today and one of foreign ministers tomorrow. While it cannot be assumed that the perspectives of each European or each African country are the same, for the purposes of the summit they are acting as two blocs, the EU and the OAU (Organisation of African Unity).
The outstanding areas of disagreement between the blocs appear at this stage to be in the area of debt relief and/or cancellation, which is absolutely central to the Africans, and over the question of what review mechanisms are put in place at the conference's close to monitor progress on its Plan of Action.
It has already been agreed there will be a further summit in Europe in three years, but African spokesmen appeared to be holding out as they met in Algeria this week for a fuller and more formal monitoring structure than that envisaged by the Europeans to be put in place in the interim.
Other areas of divergence can be seen in the differing emphases of each side as to what is most important in the already largely agreed draft Declaration and Plan of Action, with Africa stressing the more concrete and measurable items such as debt, aid, market access and terms of trade; while Europe gives at least equal weight to the importance of human rights, democratic institutions, accountability and "good governance". African countries, only too aware of the effect of debt repayments on, say, health spending, seek to have their debt cancelled. European countries, to the extent to which they are willing to accede to such a request, may wish to be assured that any money saved will indeed be directed towards health.
One aspect of the summit of particular interest to Irish foreign policy, and on which the Taoiseach is expected to speak on Tuesday, is the question of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, now the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the UN programme on the problem, UNAIDS, there are 23.3 million men, women and children in this region living with the disease. The hardest-hit area, eastern and southern Africa, has 4.8 per cent of the world's population yet has accounted for 60 per cent of all lives so far lost to AIDS.
It is in this context, as Trocaire has pointed out in its position paper on the summit, that we must look at the general failure of Africa - a failure predicated on nothing other than poverty - to benefit from the development of anti-retro viral drugs.
The use of these, in conjunction with other advances in care, has meant that "being HIV positive in a relatively wealthy environment can increasingly be compared to living with a chronic condition, such as diabetes". But drug formulae, under world trade rules, come under the heading of intellectual property. And property and profit, under the new dispensation as under the old, appear to be more important than life.
Such melancholy considerations apart, the preparation of the Cairo summit has been a considerable achievement. The final form of the Declaration and Plan of Action, and more crucially the degree to which that plan is carried out, will help to clarify whether the EU can be seen as not just a community of interests but also as the community of values which some of its finer spirits say they want.