By touring African countries, Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, is seeking to ensure African countries’ votes on Ukrainian resolutions in the United Nations UN General Assembly (UNGA) were effective, and to encourage Russia’s isolation in the international arena.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy said this on the air of the United News telethon, citing the Foreign Ministry’s website.
Summing up his second tour to Africa, he noted that he had visited Morocco, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Mozambique, Nigeria, and his route totalled 28, 000km.
Kuleba stressed that in the previous three decades, Ukraine’s African policy had been developing by inertia from the Soviet era, and Ukraine was gradually losing Africa. Today, the MFA is implementing a policy of Ukrainian-African renaissance.
“African countries are ready for Ukraine’s return in every sense. They are ready for more African students to study in Ukraine, which is beneficial for our educational institutions and increases the soft power of our country; they are ready to increase trade; they are ready for a new development of tourism after the war; they are also interested in pharmaceuticals, digitalisation, and a number of other spheres. We felt completely open to implementing mutually beneficial projects. And most importantly, they want to deal with Ukraine without intermediaries,” the minister said.
Kuleba emphasised that at the intersection of these factors, not only economic but also political opportunities will open up.
The foreign minister stressed that they want to ensure that African countries vote effectively for our resolutions in the UN General Assembly, and to encourage efforts within their capabilities to isolate Russia in the international arena. He added that this is a complicated story, as Russia has long been systematically investing in Africa. But little strokes fell great oaks and we will definitely demonstrate this.
The minister spoke of Ukraine’s full support in closed-door negotiations. At the same time, Russia has been systematically building its policy in Africa for years and has many “hooks”.
Ukraine’s task is to free African countries from them through quiet diplomatic work, Kuleba explained.
“If Russia did not feel threatened by our diplomatic efforts, Lavrov would not be flying following me, and Russian diplomats in Africa would not be running around convincing African governments to cancel my visits and not to meet with me. All this activity of the Russians shows one thing: they feel a real threat to their influence in Africa from our work,” the minister said.
The Foreign Minister also noted that eight out of ten African countries have already agreed to open Ukrainian embassies, two others are completing the relevant processes, and there are already a number of ambassadorial candidates for 4-5 countries.
By the end of the year, Kuleba announced the creation of new institutional mechanisms for cooperation with African countries.
According to him, these mechanisms will allow solving the problems of African partners so that Ukraine in Africa can get new opportunities to solve its own problems.
As reported earlier, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister is visiting African countries to promote President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Peace Formula and open up new prospects for the country.
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