Sochi, (New Ziana) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday Africa had a key role to play in the emerging multipolar world, and offered Moscow’s multifaceted partnership to the continent.
In a message to the inaugural meeting of the Russia-Africa Foreign Ministers’ Partnership Forum here, Putin said Africa’s clout in global affairs was increasing, thereby staking out a place for itself in the new multipolar world taking shape.
The meeting, attended by 40 African foreign ministers and over 1 500 other diplomats, explored ways to deepen cooperation in a wide range of areas between the two sides, and how to loosen the neo-colonial clutches of the West in their bilateral affairs.
Putin said Russia considered Africa a ‘friendly’ continent to whom Moscow attached importance, and was keen to deepen cooperation.
He said Russia could cooperate with the continent in a broad range of fields, including economy, health, security and social spheres.
“Russia, for its part, attaches particular importance to strengthening the traditionally friendly relations with its African partners,” Putin said.
“We are united in the desire to build a fair, multipolar world order based on genuine equality and rule of international law, free from any form of discrimination, dictate and sanctions pressure,” he added.
The West, using the Russia-Ukraine war as a pretext, has slapped Moscow with the heaviest sanctions ever imposed in history, in a bid to curb its geopolitical rise anew.
This included cutting it off international trade payment systems controlled by the West, and seizure of over USD300 billion of its reserves held in western banks.
This has, however, failed to constrain Russia’s economy nor its military campaign in Ukraine or its geopolitical rise.
On the contrary, it has spooked the world into weighing the dangers of reliance on western-controlled financial systems, including reserve currencies such as the US dollar.
More and more countries are, thus, switching to trade settlements in national currencies and other forms outside the control of the West to safeguard their interests.
Russia and other Brics nations are championing the creation of a multipolar world order in which no one country or group of countries, wielded absolute power, financial or otherwise, over the rest of the world as has the US and it’s European allies until now.
Putin said Africa, with its enormous wealth of natural resources, had a key role to play in shaping the new multipolar world order, and Russia was ready to partner it.
“They (Africa) play an increasingly important role in resolving the most important issues on the international agenda,” he said.
Moscow has been pushing for Africa’s inclusion in the United Nations Security Council as a permanent member with full veto power.
But the United States, on the other hand, wants Africa to assume permanent membership of the UN Security Council with no veto power.
The Sochi meeting is part of a series Russia and Africa have held in recent years, as the two sides retrace ties from Soviet times when these were close, and fraternal.
New Ziana