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Putin invites African states to summit, underlines Syria partnership

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
5 Apr 2023 20:12

Russian President Vladimir Putin touches on several issues, including his country's relationship with the West, Syria, Iraq, and African nations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow, Russia, April 5, 2023 (AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday invited the representatives of all African countries to the Russia-Africa summit set for July in the Russian city of St. Petersburg during a ceremony of the presentation of credentials of new foreign ambassadors.

"We are preparing in the most serious way for this important event [...] We will be glad to see the leaders of all African countries, as well as the heads of regional organizations, in St. Petersburg," Putin said.

Putin said weeks ago that African nations would become one of the main pillars and pioneers of the new world order, stressing that relations between Russia and Africa were developing to unprecedented levels and that Moscow aimed to expand these ties.

Despite only accounting for 3% of world GDP, African countries are witnessing exponential economic growth, Putin noted, adding that Russia aspires to reach a strategic partnership with the African nations to jointly transition the current global affairs into the new world order.

Highlighting that Moscow has dropped over $20 billion of African countries' debt, he emphasized the need to develop coordination and expand cooperation in areas of mutual interests, such as energy, healthcare, and the military field, stressing that Moscow will continue helping the continent expand electrical grids and energy generation.

Russia-E U relations deteriorated

According to the Russian President, ties between Russia and the European Union have recently deteriorated after Europe initiated its confrontation with Russia.

"The head of the representative office of the European Union, who is here, probably shares the opinion that the relations of this association with Russia have sadly deteriorated greatly in recent years," the Russian leader said.

"We see the reason for this in the fact that, leaving aside its main original mission and function of developing economic cooperation and integration on the European continent, the European Union initiated a geopolitical confrontation with Russia," he added.

He also expressed hope that negative relations with the EU will remain in the past and that the logic of mutual cooperation will prevail.

The European Union has in light of the Ukraine war imposed 10 packages of sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine war, with the latest package being introduced during the ceremony of the war's outbreak on February 24.

The European Union intensified its work on the 10th sanctions package against Russia, with Poland proposing the imposition of new measures and strengthening existing ones, according to the Polish Ambassador to the EU, Andrzej Sados.

The latest package of sanctions aimed to expand the list of sanctioned individuals and organizations and added diamonds to the list of sanctioned Russian exports.

Russia open to dialogue

The Russian head of state assured foreign ambassadors at the ceremony in Moscow that Russia wanted to foster constructive relationships with all countries without exception.

"I want to underscore that Russia is open to a constructive partnership with all countries without exception. We are not going to isolate ourselves from anyone. We are not biased or hostile against anyone," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explained Tuesday explained that Russia and China "see the causes of main challenges in the international security area in a similar way" and "note the West’s unwillingness to engage in an inter-state dialogue based on principles of equality."

He added that the two countries "oppose the use of sanctions pressure methods and other instruments of unscrupulous competition."

Russia expects probe into Nord Stream

Moscow expects that an international commission will be created to investigate the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipeline, Putin stressed.

"I will mention first of all the sabotage that took place in September 2022 on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines," Putin underlined.

"We hope, Mr. Ambassador, that the Danish side supports our proposal to establish an independent international commission to determine all the circumstances of what happened," he underlined.

This comes after the UN Security Council rejected Monday a draft UN Security Council resolution in February requesting that the UN Secretary-General establish an independent international commission to investigate allegations made by US journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh that the explosions were executed by the US with the help of Norway.

Russia considers the explosions that struck the two pipeliness an act of international terrorism. There have been no formal findings from the investigation, but US journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed that the US is behind the explosion, and has offered a number of insights into the subject. The US denies its involvement in the incident.

Hersh argued that the US elites had a "long-standing history" of being "disturbed by the Russian gas and oil sales to Western Europe" which was further confirmed after US President Joe Biden’s public threat to "bring an end" to the Nord Stream pipelines just two weeks prior to the war in Ukraine. This, Hersh said, proved that it "wasn’t much of a secret what we wanted to do."

He explained that the US administration was unhappy with the fact that its proxy war against Moscow was not "going well", and "decided in late September to trigger the mines." He said that American foreign policy elites had made it clear, in the past, that they objected to Russian-Europpean cooperation. Based on that, Hersh said he was not "surprised one bit" by the decision to sabotage the Nord Stream Pipelines.

Russia to keep assisting Syria

Russia will continue to assist Syria in eliminating the aftermath of the recent devastating earthquakes and will contribute to the normalization of the country's internal political situation, Putin underlined.

"Immediately after the devastating earthquake in February, Russia gave a helping hand to the Syrians, sending experienced rescuers and humanitarian aid," he recalled.

"We will continue to provide global assistance to our Syrian friends in eliminating the consequences of the natural disasters and, of course, contribute to the full normalization of the internal political situation in Syria," the Russian president added.

Putin also called Syria Russia's "reliable partner, an ally in the Arab world and in the international arena."

Putin told Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in a phone call hours after the earthquake that Russian rescuers would depart toward Syria today in order to provide all required assistance and support following the devastating earthquake that struck the West Asian country and Turkey.