As foreign minister, Membe served as the chairman of the Executive Council of the African Union for one year when Tanzania assumed the rotating chair of the continental body in January 2008. During his tenure, Mauritania and Guinea had their membership suspended after the 2008 Mauritanian coup d'état and 2008 Guinean coup d'état respectively. Their delegations were barred from attending the biannual summit in January 2009. Membe was quoted as saying, "There is no good coup or bad coup. A coup is a coup and it cannot be tolerated." He also said the AU was against the indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court.