{"id":47870,"date":"2023-04-17T11:31:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T11:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kagame-slams-interference-in-africa-s-foreign-relations-with-russia-and-china\/"},"modified":"2023-04-20T08:09:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T08:09:16","slug":"kagame-slams-interference-in-africa-s-foreign-relations-with-russia-and-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kagame-slams-interference-in-africa-s-foreign-relations-with-russia-and-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Kagame slams interference in Africa&#8217;s relations with Russia and China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kagame made this statement during a press conference while visiting Benin over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Russia and China are among the superpowers expanding relations with African countries in various areas, including security and trade. <\/p>\n<p>However, Western countries and the United States have expressed their disapproval of the deepening relationships, particularly since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict last year. <\/p>\n<p>Towards the end of 2022, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, warned that African countries that failed to recognize sanctions imposed on Russia and further deepen cooperation with the country might face sanctions themselves.<\/p>\n<p>When asked for his opinion on the behavior of the US and Europe regarding Africa&#8217;s cooperation with Russia, Kagame stated that big powers should not waste their time on Africa&#8217;s foreign relations when there are other pressing issues that require more attention. <\/p>\n<p>He emphasized that Russia has a right to be anywhere legally, just like any other country, and that African countries should focus on identifying their partnership needs and working with those who offer what they need. <\/p>\n<p>The Head of State also noted that the same goes for Africa-China relations, as there are people complaining about it.<\/p>\n<p>Russia is among the countries enjoying cordial relations with Africa after China. Last month, Russia announced  that it had written off debts of African nations amounting to more than $20 billion, while trade volumes between the continent and the country reached US$18 billion in 2022.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-47359 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/gh-6.jpg\" alt=\"President Kagame (left) addressing members of the press along with his counterpart of Benin, Patrice Talon (right). \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{President Paul Kagame has criticized the reactions of European countries and the United States regarding Africa&#8217;s relations with Russia and China, saying that they have no right to restrict the continent&#8217;s choice of partners for the benefit of its people.} <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-47870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47870"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=47870"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=47870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}