“We don’t have a problem with it”
In an interview with RIA Novosti, Benson Ogutu commented on Josep Borrell’s statement that Africans have problems with geography.
“This is his (Borrel’s – socialbites.ca) view, but as Kenya’s ambassador, I can assure you that our relations with Russia have developed fruitfully since independence 59 years ago. We know where Russia is and we have no problems with that,” the Kenyan diplomat stressed.
He also spoke about the development of cooperation between Russia and Kenya. According to Ogutu, his country’s main exports to Russia are “tea, coffee, flowers, vegetables, avocado.”
“Russia, one of the main importers of our tea, ranks fifth after Pakistan, Egypt, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. The Russians love our tea and we are trying to expand the ingredients. Coffee is also popular. But we see opportunities to expand both exports and imports – we buy grain, fertilizer and metal products in Russia,” he said.
The diplomat noted that the trade volume between Russia and Kenya is “about 400 million dollars”, but that Russia “provides five times more supplies than Kenya”.
“We want to increase both our exports and imports from Russia exponentially. One of the obstacles to the expansion of trade is the lack of direct flights between our countries, no cargo or passenger flights. “Now we are working on the establishment of direct flights, we are negotiating with the leadership of the Russian Federation and the airline companies to sign an appropriate agreement,” he said.
The ambassador also noted that Kenya encourages “the private sector to work closely with its partners in Russia”. He reminded that a memorandum of understanding was signed between Kenya and the representatives of the Russian business world at the first Russia-Africa summit in 2019.
“Of course, there are some difficulties in logistics and banking transactions at the moment, but our businessmen want to enter the Russian market and discover new opportunities. In addition, our country has access to the sea and we can be a good starting point for Russian trade to enter our continent,” he said.
“Who is President Vladimir Putin”
On 8 December, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said at a meeting of the European Parliament on the fight against foreign interference that he doubted the sincerity of Africans who took part in demonstrations in support of Russia. According to him, residents of Africa “do not know where Donbass is and who President Vladimir Putin is.”
“Russia puts the blame on someone else, distorts the truth and finds spectators in certain parts of the world. For example, I am talking about young people shown on the streets of Bamako (the capital of Mali) with a poster on TV: “Putin, you saved Donbass and now you will save us!” This is shocking!” – explained the European diplomat.
On December 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference on the results of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, refuted Borrell’s statement. According to the head of state, the head of EU diplomacy is “a great, great figure of our time, a political figure of our time, as they once said about Brezhnev.”
But in Africa they know what Russia is, where Russia is. They know the role played by Russia in the decolonization process in Africa. There is not a single African country that cannot get our support at once: political, informational, economic and sometimes military. We have very stable, very kind and friendly relations with African countries and they continue.”
According to him, if Europe “knew where Africa is and what is the situation of African peoples”, it “would not interfere with the supply of food and fertilizers harvested in African countries” from the Russian Federation to these states. and the emancipation of hundreds of thousands of people in Africa from hunger.”
“Until now, we haven’t even been able to export our fertilizers, which are ready to be shipped from some ports of European countries to African countries free of charge – which I have said many times. “Partly, this process started with the pressure of the UN Secretary General, but the problem has not been resolved so far,” Putin said.
He also recommended that “some politicians in the European Union” stop “talking about love for the peoples of Africa” and start “providing direct support to these countries”.