A summit between European and African leaders has ended in Brussels with promises of a partnership to "build a common future."

The two-day summit was the first meeting of its kind in five years and was billed as a chance to reset the relationship between the two continents. 

On his way to the summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa gave his thoughts on what a "new partnership" with Africa should entail:

"Well, it means mutual respect, mutual recognition of what we can all bring to the party. Investment in our economies, infrastructure investment. And in many ways, for former colonizers to give back to the continent."

A considerable amount has changed since the last AU - EU meeting in 2017.

Rebuilding from the Coronavirus that delayed this meeting was one of the many topics discussed, including everything from trade and agriculture to migration and security.

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Financing underpinned many of the discussions. Brussels' so-called Global Gateway Programme is widely viewed as a bid to rival China's Belt and Road initiative and general influence in Africa.

But access to COVID-19 vaccines and their production and distribution took up much of the time and dominated a lot of the headlines.

The EU was keen to highlight the vaccines they have provided and the millions more promised... but while announcing a sharing of mRNA vaccine technology among six African countries, many AU leaders reiterated their demand for waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines. They also highlighted the problems of vaccine inequality faced in this pandemic.

The President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, said: "The global supply chain as we all know, and one that we had prior depended on, failed to meet the increasing demand. And it soon became the case of the wealthiest countries accessing life-saving commodities, and this if we recall history was the case with HIV, and it was once again history repeating itself."

The EU thinks patent waivers are not the answer... and points to its investment in the technology transfer to manufacture future vaccines in Africa.

But despite the links and agreements forged in this summit, vaccines remain a significant issue that looms over this newly refreshed relationship.