By KYIV. Nov 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine seeks to resume relations with Africa, which we lost in the late 1990s, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during a speech at the University of Pretoria as part of a visit to the Republic of South Africa.
“We want to rewind the relationship that we had – the relationship that we lost in the late 90s because of drowning in our internal problems and the need to focus on our return to Europe, where we geographically, historically, and culturally belong,” the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs quotes Kuleba as saying.
He noted the importance of supporting sustainable foreign policy contacts to maintain strong relations between countries. Also during the lecture, Kuleba spoke about the challenges of the modern world that modern diplomacy is experiencing. One of them is the concept of “double standards.”
“So a war is a test of what you believe in. And if you had been sincere and honest in the years before the war started, when you said that international law matters and that the territorial integrity and sovereignty of every country must be respected, then, when you are tested, you will have to stand by your words. And this is the most difficult part of diplomacy – maintaining integrity,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs said.
Among the current challenges, Kuleba highlighted one of the key and fundamental narratives of Russian propaganda – the division into the so-called “West” and “Global South.” According to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, such a division is wrong.
“Even in Africa, would it be fair to say that there is unanimity among African countries on all key issues in global affairs, including the Russian aggression against Ukraine? No. The way you vote and the way you conduct relations with Ukraine and Russia make every country special,” the minister addressed the audience.
The minister noted that each country deserves individual treatment, and not being subsumed under the common denominator of the “Global South,” “West,” or “North.”
