Africa-Press – Mozambique. In his end-of-year statement this Thursday, the Russian ambassador to Maputo, Alexander Surikov, said the aid would be channelled through the World Food Program (WFP) as a contribution to the organization’s projects in Mozambique.
Surikov added that his country’s government hoped the support would help solve existing problems in terms of food insecurity and hunger in Mozambique.
With regard to the development of Russo-Mozambican relations in 2021, Ambassador Surikov highlighted the resumption of face-to-face contacts between representatives of the two governments, and the visit of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Esperança Bias, and several other ministers to Russia.
The recent working visit of the Special Representative of the President of Russia for Africa and the Middle East, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Bogdanov, once again underlined the characteristic friendly character of the bilateral political dialogue, he said.
In reply to correspondents’ interest in some international issues, Alexander Surikov explained Russia’s position. He stressed that the global challenge of the coronavirus pandemic has not become a unifying factor because of the attitude of a group of countries with a selfish attitude to the problems of the developing world. A clear example of this was the WHO openly halting recognition of Russia’s “Sputnik-V” vaccine, despite the global nature of this new threat.
Alexander Surikov said that tensions in international relations were increasing, principally because of the hostility of Western countries towards Russia.
Commenting on the situation in Africa, Ambassador Surikov extolled the progress of the joint operation of the Mozambican FDS, the SADC military mission and the Rwandan army in the elimination of the terrorist groups that have plagued the province of Cabo Delgado since 2017.
Nevertheless, he reiterated Russia’s readiness to assist Mozambique address challenges to its sovereignty and independence by whatever means the Mozambicans might themselves decide.
