MOSCOW/KAMPALA, Sept 21 (NNN-NEWVISION) — Russian President Vladimir Putin, has described Uganda as a “reliable partner” in Africa, noting that the ties between Kampala and Moscow will “continue to develop” in many areas.
Putin was speaking after receiving credentials from foreign envoys who included Uganda’s Ambassador designate to Russia Moses Kavaaluuko Kizige.
“Russia’s relations with Uganda, one of Russia’s reliable partners in Africa, are friendly and mutually beneficial. I am positive that our ties in the political, trade and economic fields will continue to develop successfully, including in new promising areas,” Putin said.
According to the Russian envoy to Uganda, Vladlen Semivolos, the President of Russia, made the remarks on Tuesday during a brief on the preparations for the second Russia-Africa summit, which is scheduled for 2023 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
“The second Russia-Africa summit is scheduled to be held in St Petersburg in 2023. We hope that together we will be able to give a new impetus to the comprehensive development of mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and the African states,” Semivolos said.
The first Russia-Africa summit was held in Sochi, Russia in 2019. It was attended by majority of African leaders, including President Yoweri Museveni, who called for stronger bilateral relations with Russia, especially in the areas of defence, security, economic and technical cooperation.
In July this year, the Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, visited Uganda on a two-day working visit, and delivered Putin’s special message to Museveni.
Museveni and Lavrov also held bilateral talks at State House, Entebbe.
“Whenever issues come up and some people want us to take positions against Russia, we say ‘but you people, these people have been with us for the last 100 years, how can we be automatically against them?'” Museveni said.
“We have even forgiven our former enemies, the colonialists, the ones who have colonised us, the ones who had actually taken slaves from here and who did bad things. We have forgiven them and we are working with them,” he said.
Russia, formerly the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with Uganda in October, 1962.
In 1964, the two countries signed a trade agreement and an agreement on economic and technical cooperation and registered dynamic political dialogue. — NNN-NEWVISION
