This Friday, the President of the Republic found it undecided to accuse Africa of being hypocritical about the war in Ukraine, as his French counterpart did, saying it was a “global conflict” despite “two-thirds of the world” pretending it wasn’t. .
This Friday, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa shared a panel of debates with Cape Verdean President José María Neves at the EuroAfrica Forum 2022 in which he defended that “much of Africa does not understand what is happening in Europe or does not have the same reading that a large part of Europe has about what is happening in Ukraine” because they consider this war to be European.
“It is also not a solution, as I saw from a good friend, a European head of state, to accuse Africa of hypocrisy,” he criticized.
French President Emmanuel Macron this week denounced what he called “hypocrisy” heard “especially on the African continent” that he does not clearly recognize Russia’s “one-sided aggression” against Ukraine, as the European Union does.
For Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, “it’s much more realistic to understand what’s going on.”
“This conflict is not European, not regional and not local, but global. Ukraine is the scene of a global conflict, it is enough that a power like the Russian Federation is involved, and other powers such as the US and the EU must be involved, in a variety of ways, not directly, they are allies of those who protect themselves in order to be global. Two-thirds of the world pretend that this is not global, but it is global,” he said.
The President of the Republic analyzed what the current world situation had led to, foreseeing that “whatever comes out of this conflict will turn into someone’s victory”, which will never be “win-win”.
“This is where the problem of relations between Europe and Africa comes into play. This is a fundamental problem, because most African states – I do not say Cape Verde – look at it in terms of specific interests that have been created over the past few years, ”he explained. , mentioning that Europe “lost interest in the situation in Africa many times”, while others “invested in it, took positions, gained positions”.
Therefore, in Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s analysis, “the most convenient thing for many African countries is to stay on the sidelines”, that is, “take no position to see what you can, so as not to lose on both sides and see who will take advantage of the impossible win-win option.”
“Portugal and Cape Verde are the exception,” he stressed.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
