President Yoweri Museveni on Friday reaffirmed Uganda’s neutrality position regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict saying “the stand is the correct one.”
Russia launched a Special Military Operation in Ukraine in February this year to demilitarize Ukraine so that there would be no weapons posing a threat to Russia, protect the people of Donetsk and Lugansk Republics and to denazify Ukraine.
The operation attracted the severest sanctions in modern history on Russia by the U.S and the West with attempts to isolate it as a ‘punishment’, even without considering its concerns.
Whereas the Biden administration and the West have been reaching out to countries around the World to gain their support for severe sanctions and export control packages against Russia, Uganda has consistently abstained in UN General Assembly votes regarding the same.
While responding to a question from Plus News Journalist, Kungu Al-mahadi Adam, at his annual engagement with the media at Nakasero State Lodge on Friday, President Museveni said deviating from Uganda’s current position is going against the correct stand.
“Why are we taking that stand (neutrality) on Russia-Ukraine conflict, it is because it is the correct one. We know the history very well. I have talked to all these leaders about our stand and it is the correct one,” said the President.
He also dismissed speculation that the U.S and the West attempted to use the recently concluded US-Africa Leaders Summit to persuade him reconsider the position, saying the organizers only concentrated on matters trade and business.
“The Americans handled the meeting very well, they didn’t try to involve us with political and diplomatic issues which would have brought differences, they just concentrated on trade and business. I didn’t see anybody raise the issue of Ukraine and if they did it would have brought disagreements,” he explained.
Some countries which have remained neutral say the Ukrainian conflict is a consequence of the mistakes of the international political elites who failed to create conditions for peace between the warring parties.
In August thus this year, President Museveni said Uganda will continue cooperating with Russia, noting that it’s not Kampala’s doctrine to inherit other countries enemies.
“We want to trade with Russia, we want to trade with all countries of the World. We don’t believe in being enemies of somebody’s enemy, no. We want to make our own enemies not to fight other people’s enemies, this is our doctrine,” Museveni said.
“When there was the cold war, one day they asked me a question, ‘are you pro-east or pro-west?’, I said you must think I am an idiot, why do you think my main job is to be pro-somebody?”
“I am pro myself and I deal with all other people according to how they relate with my own interests. These people think we are stupid, such a question is idiotic. It is not my job to be pro-east or pro-west, I am pro myself and I deal with people according to the way they deal with me,” he added.
He reiterated the same at joint press conference with a European Union delegation, two days later, Museveni defended the country’s relationship with Russia. “How can we be against somebody who has never harmed us?” Museveni asked.
“If Russia makes mistakes, we tell them,” Museveni said, citing his participation in student demonstrations against the crushing of the Prague Spring by the Soviet Union in 1968.
“But when they have not made a mistake, we cannot be against them,” he added.
Museveni had earlier that month, in meeting with the U.S Ambassador to the United Nations H.E Linda Thomas-Greenfield at State House Entebbe, told the U.S to desist from involving Africa in sanctions imposed on Russia.
“We are also appealing to the U.S that if they really want to help Africa, they should consider separating us from the sanctions in a war where we are not participating,” he noted.