Moscow. The current president of the BRICS Group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, told his host, Vladimir Putin, that African countries did not come (to the Russia-Africa summit held in Petersburg on the previous Thursday and Friday) to demand that Russia give them gifts, urging it to immediately resume the so-called Black Sea grain pact.
It happened on Friday night, during the dinner that the head of the Kremlin had with the representatives of the seven countries that formulated the African peace initiative in relation to the war in Ukraine, and the public stenographic version of the talk of diners, who saw fit to distribute the press service of the Russian presidency minutes before 12 at night.
According to that text, when speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Ramaphosa noted: “In your interventions in the forum, you (Putin) referred to several of our proposals. In particular, he spoke of cereals. We have proposed to comply with the Black Sea food initiative, it is essential to open this shipping route, we want it to be open to world markets”.
And he added: “We did not come here to ask that they give us anything. We understand that because of your generosity you decided to supply free grains to some African countries that have some difficulties and we take it with great respect; However, this is not our main objective here, our main task here is not to get supplies of that type (donations)”. After this paragraph, the conversation is cut off and the discussion continues behind closed doors. Earlier, the South African leader defended the need to end the war through negotiations.
He stated: “You are absolutely right when you say that we have different positions regarding this conflict (the war in Ukraine), but we all agree on one essential issue: that this conflict has to be resolved through negotiations, through dialogue, and we agree. I agree with you that this is the best way forward.”
The host repeated the arguments he has defended since February 24, 2022, when he gave the order to invade Ukraine: that the United States, by supporting a “coup” in Ukraine, turned that country into an “instrument to attack Russia.” ; that Moscow wanted to resolve the problem peacefully, but was deceived; that Russia wants to negotiate, but Ukraine not only refuses, but “even approved a decree that prohibits it”; that Russia agreed not to attack Kiev “as they asked” to facilitate the signing of the ceasefire and then Kiev did not want to sign the peace agreement “almost ready”, but that it cannot give the details, because “it would be unethical” to reveal the content of the conversations.
“You,” Putin said, referring to his African guests, “accuse us of violating the Charter of the United Nations (UN). I disagree. We were forced to recognize the independence of some territories (a third of Donietsk and Lugansk), we signed friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance treaties with them, based on these treaties we responded to their request for help in full accordance with article 51 of the UN Charter. Therefore, there is no violation of the UN Charter here.”
And the Russian president explained to the African leaders: “With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became an independent country based on its respective Declaration, which clearly states that Ukraine proclaims itself a neutral state, and for us this is of paramount importance. Why did the West start luring Ukraine into NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)? We don’t understand. Because precisely that creates, in our opinion, a fundamental threat to our security, given that it is inadmissible for a military bloc, hostile to us, to approach our borders”.
Ramaphosa, on behalf of his colleagues, responded: “Based on your explanation, we understand the roots of this conflict, we understand how and when it started. But we want to support peace processes around the world. It turns out that this conflict (the war in Ukraine) affects us directly. We have already told you that this conflict affects problems in terms of food security (there is a shortage of food, the price of fertilizers has risen, the cost of living has increased in many countries, he listed) and we consider that restoring peace is in the interest of humanity, as well as the peoples of Russia and Ukraine”.
And he finished, insisting: “We believe that this conflict has to be resolved peacefully.”
This Russia-Africa summit also approved several documents – a joint declaration, declarations on the prevention of an arms race in space, on cooperation in international information security, on the fight against terrorism, as well as an action plan of the Russia-Africa cooperation forum between 2023 and 2026–, commendable work by the respective diplomacies, in 57 pages with unappealable proposals.
Another attack in the capital
Meanwhile, three Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow today (local time), leaving one injured and damaging two office towers, local authorities reported.
The Ministry of Defense confirmed to the TASS news agency that one of the devices was destroyed and two others were “repressed” before reaching their objective, which was not specified.
Moscow and its environs, some 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, have rarely been targets in the conflagration with Ukraine, but have suffered several drone strikes this year.
