2023-05-19 21:35:45
With our correspondent in Johannesburg, Claire Bargelès
As announced by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa this week, Kyiv and Moscow have agreed to host a delegation led by the heads of state of Zambia, Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville, Uganda, Egypt, and South Africa. Following this agreement in principle, it now remains to set up the entire mission.
It will start with a preparatory visit from Sunday. At the helm, Jean-Yves Ollivier, a French businessman and head of the Brazzaville Foundation, the organization that set up this African mission. He will be accompanied by two emissaries, Senegalese and South African, to ” clarify positions and above all talk regarding logistics, during a trip that will take them between Russia and Ukraine. Because getting six heads of state to travel between the two capitals is no small feat, especially since the visit should last at least four days, according to the Foundation.
The date of this African mission for peace still remains to be established. If the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs now speaks of “ the first week of june “, in Moscow, Sergei Lavrov, head of Russian diplomacy, rather evokes the ” mid/late June or early July “. Anyway, it should take place before the Russia-Africa summit scheduled for Saint Petersburg at the end of July.
As for the chances of success, which some believe are low as attempts at mediation multiply, Jean-Yves Ollivier believes that ” nothing bad can come of it ” and that'” in any case, we will have tried. »
In addition, while South Africa is criticized for its ties with Moscow, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor was able to discuss Friday with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, during a visit to Portugal.
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