The High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union (EU) considered this Thursday that Europe is Africa’s “reliable partner” against Russia and that the war in Ukraine harms the continent and the rest of the world.
In an opinion piece published in the Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation, Josep Borrell stressed that Africa is a “vibrant continent” that is forging its future through digital transformation, more efficient and sustainable agriculture, the construction of infrastructure, the reinforcement of security and investment in their youth.
“For this reason, we propose that Europe be Africa’s preferred partner”said the high representative, who this Thursday begins a trip to Mozambique that will also take him to Kenya and Somalia, noting that “European investment in Africa is more than five times greater than that of China.”
However, he added, the world’s future is shadowed by the “devastating consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine on food security, energy prices, debt and insecurity.”
The war affects everyone, but “Africa is one of its main collateral victims,” said the head of European diplomacy, who admitted that “some African countries look at this war from a different perspective” than that of the EU.
Borrell also said that the EU and the African continent could agree on “four key points”.
The first is that “Europe, Africa and the whole world cannot accept a world of ‘might is good’, where great powers can claim ‘spheres of influence’ and attack their neighbors to annex their territory”.
The High Representative intends to defend and revitalize the multilateral order, hence his support for the continent’s demand that the African Union have a seat in the G20, a group of 20 developed and emerging countries.
Second, he advocated “alleviating the food crisis” in many African countries, caused in part by the dispute in Ukraine, a major grain supplier to the continent.
Others try to distract attention from their responsibility by blaming EU sanctions [à Rússia]. But these do not prohibit African countries from importing and transporting Russian agricultural products or paying for them. War is the problem,” he argued.
The third point is to intensify joint work to preserve the security of the African continent, and in this field the EU is “Africa’s most reliable partner”, supporting 11 peacekeeping missions, he said.
“Russia contributes 78 security personnel to UN peacekeeping operations in Africa, compared to 6,000 in the EU. But Russia also contributes to the deterioration of the security situation in Africa with several hundred mercenaries from private military companies, as we see in Mali and the Central African Republic,” added Borrell.
Finally, the head of European diplomacy believes that “Africa and Europe must continue to prepare for the future, not to return to the past.”
“While colonialism is an indelible stain on Europe’s conscience, confronting our responsibility for the past has made us better partners for the future. Europe looks at Africa with new eyes: with optimism and confidence,” she said.
The head of EU diplomacy begins this Thursday a two-day visit to Mozambique, in which he will meet with the president, Filipe Nyusi, and will deliver non-war material to support the fight in Cabo Delgado.
On Friday, Borrell will visit the European Union Military Training Mission (EUTM Mozambique), at the Katembe training camp, on the southern shore of Maputo, “where he will witness the equipment delivery ceremony financed by the European Peace Mechanism ”.
The mission supports the training of quick reaction units of the Mozambican Defense Forces and has 119 members from 12 countries.
Portugal takes command of the mission and is the country with the largest contingent, currently 68 soldiers from the three branches of the armed forces and the GNR.
Source: Observadora
