Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has revealed his government’s immediate plans to establish nine embassies in selected African countries to increase cooperation between them and his country.
He was speaking at his office in Kyiv on Wednesday when he met a group of African media representatives.
Shmyhal said $25 million will be spent in establishing embassies in nine African countries as part of the African renaissance and to rekindle Ukraine’s relationship with them.
He said Ukraine has identified potential in economic and trade relations with Africa, and that this relationship is based on mutual understanding and respect.
Ukraine currently has 11 embassies in Africa and the 9 more on the cards will bring the total to 20, while efforts to increase the number are underway.
The nine countries in the process of opening Ukrainian embassies are Botswana, Cameroun, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritania, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan and Tanzania.
Shmyhal said Ukraine will develop a mutually beneficial relationship with Africa as a credible partner that countries it will cooperate with cam count on.
The plans to establish new embassies in Africa and other parts of the world were hatched in 2019 by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but the full scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine disturbed the process.
And Shmyhal, when asked on whether he was concerned by the growing presence of Russia’s Wagner Group in Africa, said Ukraine was we not afraid of that.
“We are not afraid of Russia’s presence in any African country,” he emphasized.
He said no third party will stop Ukraine from making progress in establishing new links in Africa despite the presence of Wagner in several parts of the world.
Picture Credit: Office of the Prime Minister of Ukraine