Good afternoon. We analysed the state of bilateral relations, which are developing very intensively on a mutually beneficial basis in the economy, of course, mining and information and communication technology, agriculture, infrastructure, the capabilities of the port and airport of Massawa, and the availability of the Russian proposals to develop industries in Eritrea.
All of this is going to be the subject of regular consultations between the ministries of economy, which we agreed to launch very soon and to make these consultations a regular feature of our relations.
We discussed our military and military-technical cooperation on the basis of the agreements signed some time ago. We are ready to satisfy the needs of Eritrea as regards maintaining its defence capability, and we certainly will be cooperating in humanitarian matters. We are ready to increase the number of scholarships which Eritreans receive every year from the Russian Government.
We discussed African issues, especially from the point of view of resolving several conflicts in the Horn of Africa. We hope that the recent ceasefire agreement between the Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front reached with the help of South Africa, with the help of Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo and Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, will help stabilise the situation in the region, which will also be beneficial for the stability of all countries situated here.
Our main discussion was devoted to the radical changes in the international situation. We have consolidated our positions in the United Nations on all the issues related to the key international problems, especially the problems created by the collective West as it were for the Russia Federation and any countries that do not accept the claim of the United States and its satellites to have hegemony in the global economy, in international politics, and to dictate its will to everybody in line with the famous concept of the “end of history,” whereby liberal democracy is imposed on everybody like the ultimate truth.
Our common position is promoted in the United Nations within the Group of Friends of the UN Charter, which includes not only Eritrea and Russia but also 20 other countries, and its membership is growing.
We will insist that everybody respect the key principle of the United Nations, which is sovereign equality of states. This principle is being grossly violated and disregarded by the United States, NATO and the European Union.
This principle must be respected by them, and we will insist on this. The multipolar world is a reality. New centres of economic development, financial and political influence are growing objectively. This is an objective process, and the attempts which are being undertaken to stop this objective course of history are doomed to failure.
We would like to launch a dialogue on the issues which will help unite countries which are law-abiding, which respect the UN Charter and which should be mobilised to defend international law and the UN values, rather than the invented values which the West tries to impose on everybody else.
One of the potent steps in this direction would be the second Russia-Africa summit, which is scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg at the end of July this year.
We hope that President of Eritrea Isaias Afwerki will be personally present at this important event.
(Source: RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY)
