Burundi’s foreign minister insisted Tuesday that his country would not take sides in Russia’s war against Ukraine, after a visit from Moscow’s top diplomat in his latest trip to drum up African support.
Burundi is among 22 of the 54 African Union nations that abstained in a February vote at the United Nations calling on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine, with two countries, Mali and Eritrea, voting against the resolution.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has visited several African nations in recent months seeking international support for the invasion against Ukraine, with Kyiv’s top diplomat Dmytro Kuleba announcing last week a similar push on the continent.
“We have taken a position of abstainment, of neutrality and non-alignment, so that this conflict doesn’t spread to other regions, in particular Africa,” Burundi’s foreign minister Albert Shingiro said at a press conference alongside Lavrov.
“Nobody can win this war,” he added.
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“We fully appreciate Burundi’s balanced and responsible position, and above all the fact that Burundi fully understands the root causes of this conflict,” said Lavrov, who visited Kenya on Monday.
“We also spoke about the need to reform the United Nations Security Council, and the fact that Africa is not sufficiently represented there,” he said.
Russia, which is seeking to extend its political and economic footprints in Africa, has announced a second Russia-Africa summit in Saint Petersburg for July 26-29.
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Kuleba for his part has called on African nations to end their professed “neutrality” over Russia’s invasion, saying Kyiv would open new embassies across the continent.
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Source link : https://www.barrons.com/amp/news/burundi-sticks-to-ukraine-neutrality-as-russia-s-top-diplomat-visits-a4771272
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Publish date : 2023-05-30 07:00:00
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