The President of Uganda HE.Gen Yoweri Museveni has called for stronger bilateral ties between his county and Russia, markedly in areas of defence, economic and technical cooperation.
The President made these pleas during a meeting today afternoon with the Russsian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at State House Entebbe.
Museveni also underlined the fact that Russia has been with “us for the last 100 years” and therefore, Uganda can never take a biased position against it.
“Whenever issues come up and some people want us to take positions against Russia we say; but these people have been with us for the last 100 years. How can we be automatically against them? We have forgiven our former enemies; the colonialists that did bad things to us, how can we be against somebody who has never harmed us but instead helped us,” Mr Museveni said.
According to Gen Museveni, Uganda believes and wants to trade with Russia and the rest of the world. Making enemies would therefore impinge the benefits of this commercial adventure.
“No! We want to make our own enemies not fight other people’s enemies. This is our doctrine. We have got our clear position as part of the African liberation movement. We know who is who and who’s doing what and why, and we know where we stand,” said Gen. Museveni explained in a direct message aimed at the Western world.
Uganda has largely depended on Russia most especially in the defense sector, with much of the country’s military hardware imported from the former Soviet Republic. Russian made Shukhoi SU-30 flanker fighter jets form the backbone of Uganda’s airforce.
Having captured instruments of power after a 5-year guerrilla war in 1986, Museveni emphasized that his government would rather trade with Russia and not isolate it.
“We want to trade with Russia. We want to trade with all countries of the world. When there was the cold war one day they asked me a question; are you pro-East or pro-West? I said, ‘You must think I’m an idiot. Why do you think my main job is to be pro-some body. I am pro-myself and I deal with all the other people according to how they relate with my own interests’. These people think we’re stupid. The question is idiotic,” said Gen Museveni who last visited Russia in 2019.
Uganda enjoys warm bilateral relations with Moscow, bolstered by President Museveni’s difficult East-West balancing act.
On his part, Mr. Lavrov spoke of the the need to deepen ties with Africa, and particularly Uganda in the areas of energy, economic cooperation, and also reaffirmed Moscow’s determination to help Uganda launch its own satellite.
He also appreciated Uganda’s well balanced and responsible position regarding what Russia calls “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“We have discussed all the areas covering economic cooperation between our countries and we find lots of promising domains including energy, geological studies hydrocarbons, cyber security , agriculture and the use of nuclear technology for agriculture and medicine, as well as the launch of a satellite for Uganda,” Lavrov said.
In May this year, Kampala chose to remain neutral during the UN General Assembly’s emergency session convened to call for an immediate cessation of violence and withdrawal of the Russian military from Ukraine.
Following Russia’s land, air and sea full scale invasion of Ukraine in February this year, Uganda chose to join a long list of African countries that refused to condemn president Vladimir Putin for agression.
Lavrov’s next and last stop will be Ethiopia, where he is expected to lay the ground for the next Russia-Africa Summit.
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