During a conversation with African journalists, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed holding a Ukraine-African Union summit and said he was ready to come to any African country for this purpose.
According to the head of state, Ukraine is interested in strategic partnership with the states of the African continent, but such a partnership should be based on mutual respect for territorial integrity, sovereignty, language and traditions.
“This should be in the cultural plane, in the economic plane, and in respect between people. Without violating your and our rights, without affecting your and our freedom. We respect any state that respects us,” he said.
As the next step in the development of strategic cooperation, Zelenskyy announced his readiness to visit any state on the African continent.
“I do not have any priorities here (regarding a particular African state – IF-U). I think that if we can organize ourselves where we can meet, so that I have maximum contact with as many leaders, as many communities as possible, I think that would be better. And I would like to have the opportunity to organize such a meeting “African Union – Ukraine” or “Ukraine – countries of the African continent,” the president said.
“To be honest, I don’t care what the format is called. The main goal is for us all to do our best to achieve stability in the world and to achieve peace on the territory of our country. And to put the question not only in Russia, but with this war and the end of this war to put in place any aggressor with any colonial ambitions for the future,” he added.
As he emphasized, this is also very important for the future, because such things, such outbreaks and such wars can happen anywhere in the world.
Leaders of several more African Union countries will visit Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told African journalists in an interview.
“I am happy that the (African) delegation was here. Frankly speaking, I think we could expand such meetings. And I expected that more states could come to us. And indeed they are planning to. And we expect some more states to come, some more leaders. They will be in Ukraine,” the President said.
According to him, “it is important to communicate with these leaders, so that we look each other in the eyes, because it is important for them to see with their own eyes what is happening here and the consequences of the war. To listen, to hear. Not over the phone, not through the media, not through Lavrov.”
“When African leaders receive information about Ukraine through the Russian Foreign Ministry, it is wrong. We don’t have any mediation, we don’t have any dialog with the RF. We are at war with them. I would like you (Africans) to perceive information about Ukraine through yourselves, through your journalists,” he said.
The head of state also noted that he would like to be able to hold meetings with all the leaders of the African Union states and within the framework of the recent visit of the African delegation to Kiev he offered to hold such an extensive meeting on the territory of any of the African countries.
“We had several presidents sitting in our circle (as part of a previous meeting with a delegation from Africa). And we communicated about different things, about the consequences of this war, about the causes … We did not have enough time. We talked for 2.5 or 3 hours. And it was already quite a lot, but we lacked time and contacts,” – said Zelensky.
“And I believe, and I insisted on this very much, I really wanted to have the opportunity to meet with all the leaders. Why we suggested that it should be my meeting on the territory of any state of the African continent, where leaders can come? Because it is important that the society of your states can see us, can listen to us, can ask us, can get an answer. Not because of any media, but directly. And then they found the strength and courage to come to Ukraine and see what is happening here. To draw conclusions. This is very important,” he added.
During communication with journalists, the President also noted that the Ukrainian people deserve to trust in relations with the peoples of African states.
“And I would very much like to strengthen our relations, but it requires both sides to be ready for it,” summarized Zelensky.
