HARARE, June 11. /TASS/. Eritrea would like to see Russia’s active presence in Africa as a counterweight to the West, Russian Ambassador to the State of Eritrea Igor Mozgo said in an interview with TASS.
"Asmara would certainly like to see a more active presence of Russia in Africa as a counterweight to Western influence," he said.
"The Eritrean leadership calls on Russia to join in ensuring security and maintaining peace on the African continent, to restore the role and influence that the Soviet Union had here," he added.
"Eritrea occupies an important strategic position on the Red Sea: almost 1,200 km of coastline on the mainland and almost the same area including the islands that belong to it," Mozgo noted.
"Therefore, security issues in and around this sea occupy an important place in the policy of the Eritrean authorities. Asmara strongly opposes unilateral actions by the West against Yemen and in the Red Sea region as a whole, welcomes the visits of Russian Navy ships here and advocates the permanent presence of our fleet in the Red Sea in this area, taking into account the provisions of the agreement signed in July 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin's Maritime Doctrine could certainly be very promising, but everything depends on the negotiating position of the Eritrean side," the diplomat said.
According to the Russian ambassador, Eritrea advocates reducing the West's presence in Africa. President Isaias Afwerki spoke about this at the celebration of the 33rd anniversary of the country's independence on May 24, when he accused the elites of domination and monopoly of pursuing a neocolonial policy on the continent, pumping out its resources under plausible promises of assistance for the implementation of development goals.
"Therefore, Asmara gravitates toward interaction with the East, and not with the West. The priorities of its cooperation, in addition to the regional agenda, are the development of relations with China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia," the diplomat concluded.