Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has pledged to double the number of Ugandan students Russia hosts and covers their education costs.
He made the pledge on Thursday during a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni on the sidelines of the ongoing second Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg.
Putin billed the two-day summit that opened yesterday as a major event that would help bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage.
In the last 60 years, Russian universities have been helping Ugandans and more than 4,000 students have taken advantage of the scholarships and studied in Russia.
The students, upon returning have made a significant contribution towards the formation and development of Uganda’s economy. Some graduates have taken key government positions in private and national structure.
He also said Russia is to up two modern mobile laboratories that can diagnose many diseases including epidemic ones.
Consequently, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the Minister of health in Uganda who is also in Russia, on Thursday, said on behalf of government of Uganda, she had received a state of the art mobile laboratory that can run both bacteriological and virological samples at the point of care.
She said she also signed a road map of cooperation in the field of research, training, and capacity building with the government of Russia.
“We appreciate the Russian Federation for this generous offer,” said Dr Aceng.
Meanwhile, President Putin said that Russia remains committed to strengthening cooperation between Russia and Africa in economic, political, security, trade and humanitarian areas.
He said that Uganda remains one of Russian key partner and ally on the African continent with the diplomatic relationship that stretched over 60 years.
Putin further noted that due to the good relationship under cooperation trade between the two countries has increased 5 time in the last 6 months compared to last year.
He said he was happy that Uganda and Russia have close positions on the international arena that he said is based on commitment to shaping a just world that is accommodative to everyone and expressed happiness that Uganda was to chair the non-allied movement.
The Summit
Africa’s 54 nations make up the largest voting bloc at the United Nations and have been more divided than any other region on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
It’s the second Russia-Africa summit since 2019. The number of heads of states attending shrank from 43 then to 17 now because of what the Kremlin described as a crude Western pressure to discourage African nations from taking part.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov deplored “unconcealed brazen interference by the U.S., France and other states through their diplomatic missions in African countries, and attempts to put pressure on the leadership of these countries in order to prevent their active participation in the forum.”
“It’s absolutely outrageous, but it will in no way prevent the success of the summit,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov said that while only 17 heads of state are attending the summit, 32 other African countries are represented by senior government officials or ambassadors.
Weldone !! we appreciate as ugandans and i would wish be a beneficiary of the above headlined cause.