African Nations Call for Indivisibility of Global Security, Russia Supports It — Lavrov

Lavrov also pointed out that African countries have shown an understanding of the root causes of the Ukraine crisis, "which was created by the West’s efforts"

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, June 17. /TASS/. African countries stand for the indivisibility of global security, and Russia backs this principled position, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with an African peace mission.

"First of all, they (African countries - TASS) highlighted China’s well-known twelve points, which were presented a couple of months ago, and they highlighted those parts of that Chinese initiative that are close to them and that stipulate that there no double standards in the world, that all the principles of the UN Charter in their integrity and correlation are respected and implemented, that there are no unilateral sanctions, that there are no attempts to ensure someone’s security at the expense of others, that security is indivisible on a global scale. They are the principled attitudes that we share," he said.

Lavrov also pointed out that African countries have shown an understanding of the root causes of the Ukraine crisis, "which was created by the West’s efforts".

"They have shown an understanding that this situation has to be resolved by grappling with those root causes, by working out specific real actions to eliminate the causes that are undermining and have been undermining fair security in Europe throughout many years," the Russian foreign minister said.

The African peace mission has brought together South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Comoros Azali Assoumani, Senegal’s President Macky Sall, Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema, as well as Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Florent Ntsiba and Ruhakana Rugunda, special envoys of the presidents of the Republic of the Congo and Uganda respectively. On June 16, the mission visited Kiev, where they held talks with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. On June 17, the African delegation held a meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg, where they outlined their initiative.

Putin begins talks on Ukraine with African leaders

The meeting is taking place at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna

ST. PETERSBURG, June 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has begun talks with a delegation of seven African nations that arrived in St. Petersburg to look for solutions to the Ukraine crisis.

The meeting is taking place at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, which was a residence of the Romanov imperial family and now hosts official events, including international ones. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will inform about the talks after the meeting.

On Friday, a peacekeeping mission, which has brought together presidents of Zambia, the Comoros, Senegal and South Africa, the prime minister of Egypt, and senior officials from Republic of the Congo and Uganda, visited Kiev where they held talks with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

According to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the visit is aimed at trying to outline the framework for a peaceful solution to put an end to the crisis. Two diplomatic sources told TASS that food security and prisoner exchange were on the table of Saturday’s talks.

Reuters reported citing a draft framework agreement that African leaders are likely to propose confidence-building measures whose implementation could lay the groundwork for talks between Moscow and Kiev. According to Reuters, those measures could include a pullback of Russian troops, suspension of implementation of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant targeting the Russian president, removal of Russian tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, and relief from the sanctions imposed on Russia. It indicated that this could be followed by an agreement on cessation of hostilities and would need to be accompanied by negotiations between Russia and Western countries.

The draft plan includes a clause on the need to maintain the existing agreements on grain and fertilizers. The South African Foreign Ministry told TASS that the final framework agreement was not ready yet and would be worked out after the visit.