Ethiopian Ambassador to Russia Alemayehu Tegenu Aargau said in an interview with Sputnik that his country won’t allow the US to legislate its relationship with Russia. He was asked about the “Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act” that was tabled by Congress in late April, which will require the State Department to “regularly assess the scale and scope of the Russian Federation’s influence and activities in Africa that undermine United States objectives and interests” and determine how the US could respond to its rival through “democracy”-driven programs.
Ethiopia’s top diplomat in Moscow said that “Yes, I have heard about it [bill]. Look, Ethiopia is a sovereign country; we keep all the relation and contact with any states based on our national interest, national dignity, sovereignty. Our foreign relations will only be managed by our own self, not by any other state. This is the standard of Ethiopia with regard to any bill. Ethiopia wants to strengthen bilateral cooperation with Russia. We are an independent country that can decide on our own issues.” This position is in line with international law and aimed at pursuing his country’s objective national interests.
To elaborate, they lie in comprehensively expanding its cooperation with those countries like Russia that are leading the global systemic transition to multipolarity. One form that this takes is Ethiopia’s eagerness to participate in Russia’s financial multipolarity platform, which Ambassador Alemayehu also talked about in his Sputnik interview. To be absolutely clear, Ethiopian-Russian relations aren’t directed against any third parties but are mutually beneficial and aimed at accelerating the emerging Multipolar World Order that’s to the benefit of the vast majority of humanity that resides in the Global South.
No self-respecting country, let alone the historical cradle of anti-imperialism and Pan-Africanism that Ethiopia is, would ever allow a foreign country to legislate its interests with any other. What America is trying to do across Africa through its earlier mentioned act is reassert its declining unipolar hegemony through neo-imperial means. Its representatives arrogantly regard themselves as viceroys over the dozens of countries in that continent, which is actually racist whether they’re conscious of it or not. The US has absolutely no right to meddle in their foreign policies, especially towards Russia.
By refusing to let this happen, Ethiopia is proudly flexing its strategic autonomy and leading the rest of Africa by example, which aligns with its historical role in the continent. This is all the more impressive of a position considering that the TPLF-driven Hybrid War of Terror was unleashed by the US against this country as punishment for its balanced foreign policy, which shows that the conflict completely failed to eliminate Ethiopia’s independence. To the contrary, Ethiopia is redoubling its commitment to becoming the African leader of multipolarity as proven by the prioritization of its relations with Russia.