South Africa’s new Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola is on a visit to London, where he met with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy. Among other issues they discussed and disagreed on was how to approach resolving the Ukrainian conflict.
No agreement can be reached on bringing the Ukrainian conflict to an end without Russia, Lamola said in an interview with Russian media on July 17 during his London visit.
“Whatever peace mission initiative that must happen, it must include both parties. So there can be engagements that lead up to some kind of solution. We don’t see how you can achieve peace in this process without also engaging with Russia,” Foreign Minister Lamola stated. Commenting on his discussion with the British foreign secretary, Lamola said, “The point where we do not agree is Ukraine and Russia—how Great Britain views it and how we view the resolution of the conflict. But we agreed to continue to engage.”
Lamola revealed that a delegation of African leaders, including from South Africa, Senegal, Zambia, the Comoros, Egypt, Uganda, and the Republic of the Congo, might visit Moscow and Kyiv to again present their peace initiative, which they had presented last year. Their initiative includes de-escalation of the conflict on both sides, diplomatic negotiations, ensuring the sovereignty of states in accordance with the UN Charter, prisoner- exchange, post-war reconstruction, and more.
