The President of the Republic considered this Friday not a solution to accuse Africa of hypocrisy about the war in Ukraine as his French counterpart did, stating that it is “a global conflict” despite the fact that “two thirds of the world” claim otherwise .
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa shared a round table with the president of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, at the EurAfrican Forum 2022, in which he defended that “a large part of Africa does not understand what is happening in Europe or does not have the same reading as it has been done “by much of Europe about what is happening in Ukraine” because they see this war as European.
Nor is it a solution, as I saw from a good friend, the European head of state, to accuse Africa of hypocrisy,” he criticized.
This week, French President Emmanuel Macron denounced what he considered “hypocrisy”, heard “especially on the African continent”, which consists of not clearly recognizing Russia’s “unilateral aggression” against Ukraine, as the European Union does. .
Macron denounces “hypocrisy” in Africa due to Russian aggression
For Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “it is much more realistic to understand what is happening.”
It is a conflict that is not European, it is not regional or local, it is global. Ukraine is the scene of a global conflict, it is enough for a power like the Russian Federation to get involved and for other powers like the US and the EU to get involved, otherwise, not directly, they are allies of those who defend themselves, being global. Two-thirds of the world is pretending it’s not global, but it’s global,” he said.
The President of the Republic analyzed what led to the current world situation, anticipating that “what comes out of this conflict will translate into the victory of someone” who will never be win win.
This is where the problem of the relationship between Europe and Africa arises. This is a fundamental problem because the majority of African states — I am not saying Cape Verde — look at it according to specific interests created in recent years”, he explained, referring to the fact that Europe “many times was not interested in the situation in Africa” while others “invested in it, took positions, have acquired positions.”
For this reason, in Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s analysis, the “most comfortable thing for many African countries is to stay on the sidelines”, that is, “take no position to see what you cannot miss on one side and the other and to see who is win win the impossible will gain some advantage.
“Portugal and Cape Verde are an exception,” he emphasized.
Source: Observadora
