A day after building an embassy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ukraine established an embassy in Ivory Coast on Thursday as part of its efforts to counterbalance Moscow’s influence in Africa.
“A brilliant new page is being written in the new history of relations between Ukraine-Africa and Ukraine-Ivory Coast”, deputy foreign minister Maksym Subkh said, according to a translation of his Ukrainian speech into French.
He said that “the orders of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to spread Ukraine’s diplomatic presence in Africa” were the reason behind the opening of the new embassies.
According to the DR Congo’s foreign ministry, Subkh established Kyiv’s embassy in Kinshasa on Wednesday and has plans to build several additional representations throughout Africa to increase support.
In the upcoming weeks, he is scheduled to inaugurate embassies in Ghana, Mozambique, Botswana, and Rwanda, an AFP official of the new Abidjan consulate informed us.
“This war can seem very far away. But the catastrophic increase in food prices has already impacted the lives of millions of African families,” Subkh said at the opening in the diplomatic quarter of Ivory Coast’s economic capital.
Additionally, from February 2022 onward, the deputy minister expressed gratitude to Ivory Coast for its “support… for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, particularly by voting in favour of key resolutions at the United Nations on the full-scale Russian invasion.”
