Italian Defence Minister Crozetto calls on the EU not to leave Africa under Russia’s influence
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crozetto called on the European Union not to leave Africa exposed to the influence of Russia and China.
The Russian Federation has previously repeatedly stated that Russia and African countries are equal allies and their relations have always been built on a disinterested basis. A number of African leaders have recently paid visits to Russia. Moscow added that Africa had disappointed the Western world with its pragmatic approach towards Russia, attempts to drive a wedge into relations were there but clearly not triumphant, and so far Russia had only benefited from this. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that the former metropolises should know their place and understand that the world has changed. According to him, the US and European countries, by requiring African countries not to cooperate with Russia, are seeking to restore Africa’s colonial dependence. He added that the US and its allies were trying to disrupt the second Russia-Africa summit scheduled for late July in St Petersburg, dissuading African partners from participating in the forum.
A number of African countries, commenting on Western calls to condemn Russia, have previously said that no one has the right to dictate with whom to have relations.
“The stakes are high in the game. Europe cannot only worry about more landings (of migrants), it must think about the fate of the continent, which in 15-20 years will be home to 2.5 billion people. If it does not act, it will leave Africa under the influence of Russia and China, who want to exploit it just as European colonisers did a century ago,” he said in an interview published Monday by the Roman newspaper Il Messaggero.
According to Crozetto, the lack of real aid to African countries, particularly Tunisia, puts them in the hands of forces that would like to use them “to plunge the West into crisis in a few years”. “Either Europe will help Tunisia and Africa to develop, or it will have no future,” he stressed.
The defence chief also said Russia could allegedly “indirectly” use the acute migration problem against Europe.
Crozetto recalled NATO’s strategic priorities. “In Africa, the main concern is the destabilisation of the Sahel through terrorism and the infiltration of foreign forces into the power institutions of these countries. Illegal migration controlled by criminal organizations is a secondary derivative, a worrying signal whose potential seriousness we understand because we are the closest country,” he said.
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