South Africa will send a ministerial delegation to the Africa-European Union (EU) Summit to be held in Belgium from April 2-3, 2014, the South African government said on Monday.

The delegation will include Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies.

"The Summit will afford Africa and Europe the opportunity to further strengthen political and socioeconomic cooperation between the two continents," the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said in a statement.

Although it was largely expected that President Jacob Zuma himself would attend the summit, Zuma on Sunday voiced support for the African Union's (AU's) call to boycott the summit at the presidential level after the AU accused the EU of attempting to determine the composition of the African delegation.

"I think that time must pass wherein we are looked as subjects, we are told who must come, who must not come, we have not attempted to decide when we meet Europe; who must come and who must not come," Zuma said. "It is wrong and causes this unnecessary unpleasantness. I thought the AU and EU are equal organizations representing two continents but there is not a single one of them who must decide for others."

Other African leaders who are boycotting the summit include Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, whose wife Grace Mugabe was denied a visa to travel with him, as they both are still on the EU sanctions list.

Nkoana-Mashabane is expected to hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit with her counterparts from different countries.

"The summit will also afford the leaders from the two continents the opportunity to undertake a stock-taking of concrete deliverables that have been achieved over the past three years as guided by the Africa-EU Action Plan 2010-2013 that was adopted at the 3rd Africa-EUSmmit in Tripoli, Libya, in November 2010. Furthermore, it is expected that the summit will address issues concerning the financing of priority projects aimed at meeting the developmental challenges of Africa," the DIRCO said.

The European Union-Africa Summit is a gathering of 90 countries from the two continents. The theme for this year's summit is "Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace."