2023-06-17 20:59:25
17.06.2023
After meeting yesterday with the Ukrainian President, the African mediating delegation “encouraged” Russian President Putin to start peace negotiations with Ukraine and presented a 10-point plan as part of his peace initiative. What are the most important items of the African initiative? How did Putin respond to it?
During a meeting with President Vladimir Putin at Konstantinovsky Palace (Constantine Palace) in St. Petersburg today, Saturday (June 17, 2023), he urged A delegation of African leaders The Russian president agreed to start peace talks with Ukraine, while the latter assured them of Russia’s commitment to the African continent.
“We would like to encourage you to start negotiations with Ukraine,” Ghazali Osmani, the president of Comoros and the current chair of the African Union, told Putin, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told Putin: “We are convinced that the time has come It’s time for both sides to start negotiations and end this war.”
Main items of the African peace plan
The delegation, which also includes representatives from EgyptSenegal, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, he developed a 10-point plan as part of his peace initiative.
Today, Saturday, the Russian Tass Agency stated that the African peace plan includes 10 main items, namely: achieving peace through negotiations through diplomatic means, starting peace negotiations as soon as possible, stopping the escalation of the conflict on both sides, and ensuring the sovereignty of states and peoples in accordance with the Charter. United nations.
The plan also includes providing security guarantees to all countries, Ensuring the movement of grain and fertilizer exports from the two countries, providing humanitarian support for those who were victims of the war, settling the issue of the exchange of prisoners of war and calling for all children caught in the crosshairs of this conflict to be allowed to return to where they came from. The plan also includes post-war reconstruction and assistance to war victims. and provide closer interaction with African countries.
DW News |
17.06.2023
Putin interrupts the delegation
And in Constantine’s palace, which dates back to the eighteenth century and overlooks the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, the Russian president interrupted the talk of African leaders; To provide a list of reasons why he thinks most of their proposals are unfounded.
After presentations by the leaders of the Comoros, Senegal and South Africa, he intervened to challenge the assumptions of their plan before the rest of the leaders and representatives of the countries continued their speech. Putin reiterated his position that it was Kiev and the West that started the conflict long before Russia sent its armed forces across the border into Ukraine in February last year.
The Russian president said that the West, not Russia, was to blame for the sharp rise in global food prices early last year.
Putin, who himself ordered the large-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, once again blamed Ukraine for the fact that there are currently no peace negotiations. He said that Russia had never refused to hold talks with the Ukrainian side, but that it was Kiev that prevented that.
Putin assured the African mediation delegation of Russia’s commitment to the African continent.
The Kremlin: Putin is interested in the African initiative, but…!
For his part, the spokesman for the Russian presidency (the Kremlin), Dmitry Peskov, confirmed that the African initiative to settle the Ukrainian crisis is difficult to implement, but he indicated the interest of Russian President Vladimir Putin in it.
Peskov said, “The initiative is difficult to implement… but the president PutinHe showed interest in studying it and talked about our position, and not all items are in line with the main elements of our position, but this does not mean that we do not need to continue working, as both African leaders and Putin expressed the political will to continue the dialogue, “according to the Russian news agency Sputnik.
The Kremlin spokesman denied that the African delegation had conveyed a message from ZelenskyTo Putin, during the Russian President’s meeting with the delegation at Konstantinovsky Palace in St. Petersburg.
Peskov stressed that Russia’s position on the issue of settling the Ukrainian crisis is clear and in line with international law and the Charter of the United Nations. He explained, “The terms of the peace initiatives that are not in line with our position will, of course, be rejected by us, but we are still open to dialogue, unlike the Ukrainian side.”
P.S./A.H (DPA, Archyde.com)
Evening DW |
23.02.2023
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