President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. (Stanislav Ivanov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukraine opened embassies in Mozambique, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Rwanda, Botswana and the DRC.President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone with Mozambique’s Filipe Nyusi about strengthening ties.Ukraine invited many African countries to a peace summit, which is slated for Switzerland next month.
Like many Lusophone countries in Africa, Mozambique has military cooperation agreements with Russia.
But, on Wednesday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had a telephone conversation with his Mozambican counterpart, Filipe Nyusi, which he called “fruitful”.
In the last month, Ukraine opened embassies in Maputo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Rwanda, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during an African tour by the country’s Special Envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Maksym Subkh.
In Mozambique, Subkh spoke glowingly about relations with Ukraine, which stretch back to the war of independence of the 1970s, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, and where many guerillas from Mozambique were trained.
On Wednesday, the countries’ leaders agreed that the Ukrainian embassy in Maputo would “strengthen our bilateral ties”.
During our fruitful call, Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi and I welcomed the recent opening of the Ukrainian embassy in Maputo, which will strengthen our bilateral ties.
Ukraine exports grain to Mozambique, but we are also willing to share our extensive experience in… pic.twitter.com/hq8kjHOkv2
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / ????????? ?????????? (@ZelenskyyUa) May 22, 2024
Ukraine exports grain to Mozambique.
With the Russian invasion, Kyiv pleaded for support from African countries – and, in return, promising to share agriculture expertise, a deal Zelensky again put to Nyusi.
Good relations with Mozambique would give Ukraine access for its grain produce to reach a large swathe of Africa; Russia’s free grain to Zimbabwe went through Mozambique in February.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Russia’s Vladimir Putin met with Nyusi at the Russia-Africa Summit last year.
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Nyusi is yet to meet Zelensky, but the stage has been set for it at the Global Peace Summit, also known as the Ukrainian World Congress, which is set for Switzerland.
On 15 and 16 June, world leaders are due to gather at the Bürgenstock resort, near Lucerne.
Zelensky reached out to Nyusi and numerous other African heads of state, some with close ties to Russia.
“Food security will be one of the main topics at the summit in Switzerland, so Mozambique’s participation is of great importance for us,” Zelensky posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
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The Ukrainian Presidency said: “Ukraine is ready to engage in dialogue with all the states that support its territorial integrity. That is why the president and his team are actively working to involve representatives of the Global South in the summit.
“After all, nuclear security is very important for China, while food security is important for Africa and Asia, and prisoner exchange is important for the Arab world.”
Russia now occupies around 26% of Ukrainian territory.
The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
Source link : https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/news/after-a-string-of-new-embassies-in-africa-ukraines-zelenskyy-has-fruitful-chat-with-mozambique-20240523
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Publish date : 2024-05-23 07:00:00
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