EDRINE BENESA: Uganda’s Vibrant Foreign Policy Has Set A Solid Foundation For Generations To Come 

Uganda’s Foreign Policy is an aggregation of the domestic policies projected into the international arena. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government agency charged with the implementation of Uganda’s Foreign Policy, which is shaped around three core areas: regional and international peace and security; regional integration and international cooperation; and trade, tourism, investment and resource mobilization. The foreign policy is to support the promotion and protection of Uganda’s national interests abroad – anchored on three broad pillars: national security, national prosperity; and national well-being.

At the national level, the guiding principles which guide Uganda’s Foreign Policy emanate from the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, as specifically laid down in Objective No. XXVIII of the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. These principles are:

 Promotion and protection of Uganda’s interests abroad, respect of international law and treaty obligations

Peaceful co-existence and non-alignment, settlement of international disputes by peaceful means, opposition to all forms of domination, racism and other forms of oppression and exploitation, active participation in international and regional organizations that stand for peace, and for the well-being and progress of humanity; and

promotion of regional and pan-African cultural, economic and political cooperation

At regional and international levels, several instruments are guiding and supporting foreign policy principles, including but not limited to: the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community; The Treaty establishing COMESA; Article Four (4) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union; Article Two (2) of the Charter of the United Nations; and any other treaties, conventions, agreements signed by the Government of Uganda and ratified by Cabinet.

 As a landlocked country, fostering regional integration and cooperation is at the centre of Uganda’s foreign policy. Accordingly, regional organizations such as the East African Community (EAC); Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD); and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) are critical to Uganda’s development and socioeconomic transformation.

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has commendably set himself apart as an astute advocate for regional and continental integration, going a notch higher by walking the talk. He was integral in the restoration of the defunct East African Community bloc in the early 2000s and remains an important pillar – ” the father of integration” as President William Ruto refers to him.

A well-informed strategic foreign policy adopted and mastered by President Museveni for Uganda has not only ensured the longevity of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) but also set the pace for a modern state heading forward. It’s common knowledge that previous regimes in Uganda largely fell due to their inability to play the foreign policy card with adequate smartness.

For the rest of his life, President Apollo Milton Obote died cursing Britain and Sudan for coordinating his fall at the hands of his Army Commander, Idi Amin Dada in 1971. Surprisingly, the same miscalculations would bring down Amin himself after a rusty relationship with his neighbourhood pinched Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere to back a force of Ugandan emigres to launch a counter-offensive again him and finally dislodge his government in 1979.

President Museveni who is himself a political brainchild of the follies of his predecessors has demonstrated intent to learn from the events of the past. Even though careful not to hurt the pride of his country, the president has maintained a friendly relationship with the rest of the World something that explains the influx of foreign capital into the country in the last decade especially.

Originally a socialist in his formative political days, he made amends when he took power in 1986, leading the country on the road to becoming a Non-Alignement member. This saves him the risk of ideological confrontations between the West and the East at the height of the cold war politics way into the early 1990s. To date, Uganda still maintains the middle path and so is why they absconded from the UN vote over the Russia-Ukraine war early last year.

The result was rare visits by both American and Russian diplomats to the State House. To the former, President Museveni vehemently indicated his country and Africa as a whole had no intention of getting involved in the war that didn’t concern them and asked the West to reconsider their decision on sanctions that were causing the continent unnecessary suffering through sporadic prices of essential commodities leading to untold misery.

In the last year alone, the President has received delegations from China, the USA, the UK, France, Ukraine, Canada, UAE, South Africa, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Somalia, among others, with the majority of these being sitting Head of States.

The President has also been outside on working visits in the US, UK, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Rwanda, Kenya, Zambia, and most recently South Africa and Algeria.

Wherever he has been, Museveni has urgently marketed the country’s mega tourist and business potential to woo foreign capital flow into the country. In South Africa where he had been invited by President Cecil Ramaphosa last month, he rooted for an open-door trade policy by advocating for a borderless continent to facilitate the free movement of factors of production which he believes will greatly spur commerce by widening markets.

Shortly after his return plans to have a visa-free entry for Ugandans in the Republic of South Africa were announced to begin in 2024.

With the looming federation of the East African community, with a membership of seven at the moment and still growing, these are some of the benefits of a well-calculated foreign policy by President Museveni that will live to spur the economic transformation of this country for years to come.

The Writer is the Deputy RCC for Soroti East Division