Ukraine opened an embassy in Ivory Coast on Thursday, a day after opening one in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as Kiev seeks a greater presence in Africa to counter Moscow’s influence.
“A brilliant new page is being written in the new history of Ukraine-Africa and Ukraine-C么te d’Ivoire relations,” Deputy Foreign Minister Maksym Subkh said, according to a French translation of his Ukrainian speech.
THE…
Ukraine opened an embassy in Ivory Coast on Thursday, a day after opening one in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as Kiev seeks a bigger presence in Africa to counter Moscow’s influence.
“A brilliant new page is being written in the new history of Ukraine-Africa and Ukraine-C么te d’Ivoire relations,” Deputy Foreign Minister Maksym Subkh said, according to a French translation of his Ukrainian speech.
The new embassies were the result of “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s instructions to expand Ukraine’s diplomatic presence in Africa,” he added.
Shubh opened Kiev’s embassy in Kinshasa on Wednesday amid plans to open several more embassies in Africa to boost support, DR Congo’s foreign ministry told AFP.
He is to visit Ghana, Mozambique, Botswana and Rwanda to inaugurate embassies in the coming weeks, a spokesman for the new embassy in Abidjan told AFP.
Advertisement – Scroll down to continue
“This war may seem a long way off. But the devastating increase in food prices has already affected the lives of millions of African families,” Subh said at the opening in the diplomatic quarter of Ivory Coast’s financial capital.
The deputy minister also thanked C么te d’Ivoire for its “support… for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, particularly by voting in favor of key resolutions at the United Nations regarding a full-scale Russian invasion” from February 2022.
urs-lp/bp/spb
