Angola: President’s repositioning on Ukraine is diplomatic gamesmanship – analyst

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Angola: President’s repositioning on Ukraine is diplomatic gamesmanship – analyst

10:01 CAT | 25 Jan 2023

File photo: Lusa

An Angolan specialist in international relations has on Tuesday described as “diplomatic gamesmanship” the Angolan president’s repositioning in the face of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, aiming at maintaining relations with world powers “without diplomatic irritation”.

For Osvaldo Mboco, Angola, which also has interests in the international system, is an important actor on the African continent and its repositioning in the face of the war in Ukraine translates into an imperative to maintain relations with China, Russia and the United States.

“Hence it forces, with some inverted commas, president João Lourenço to adopt a diplomatic game and in this game of diplomacy president João Lourenço must have the political tact in the sense of managing to maintain the relations he has with the three great powers without creating any diplomatic irritant,” the expert said today, in statements to Lusa.

Mboco, who was commenting on the visit by Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who arrives in Angola today for a two-day visit, said that Angola’s position regarding the negotiation of the four provinces in Ukraine “demonstrated another realignment” of the country.

“I would not call it a pinch, but it tends to show another realignment, taking into account Angola’s position on the African continent and also taking into account Russian interests in Angola and also the traditional strategic alignment between these two states,” he said.

In Osvaldo Mboco’s opinion, the Angolan president’s recent stances regarding the conflict in Ukraine have signalled, on the one hand, a “rapprochement” with Western institutions, “particularly the United States”.

This posture “sent a signal to the international system of Angola’s rapprochement with these (European) institutions and with the American State and, in fact, its traditional international partners, namely Russia, understand that there is a distancing now”, he pointed out.

“And this distancing is not simply summed up in the position on the issue of negotiation of the four provinces by Russia at the level of Ukraine, but is manifested in large measure by the fact that president João Lourenço has shown willingness and intention to equip the Angolan army with American weaponry,” he noted.

“Therefore, there is here a cooperation that is very old, that has a large volume of business that was done with Russia and may no longer be done if in fact Angola moves towards the acquisition of American arms in detriment of Russian arms,” he noted.

The foreign minister of the Russian Federation, Serguei Lavrov, arrives in the Angolan capital today to meet with his counterpart, Téte António, and the Angolan president, João Lourenço.

The foreign affairs official’s working visit, with official meetings scheduled for Wednesday, comes at a time when Angola, after taking a neutral stance on the war in Ukraine by abstaining from voting on a United Nations resolution condemning the Russian invasion in March, in October joined the majority of countries that condemned Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territories.

Angola has been repositioning itself in recent months in terms of foreign policy, moving closer to the United States and the European Union, and distancing itself from Russia.

According to Osvaldo Mboco, the visit of the head of Russian diplomacy to Angola should also serve to Lavrov to “recall” some bilateral agreements and “see what Russia’s position will be on Angola, given the current repositioning of the Portuguese-speaking country on the international scene”.

The importance of Angola on the African continent was also noted by this specialist, noting that the recent visit by the Chinese foreign minister and the telephone conversation between João Lourenço and the US secretary of state demonstrated the country’s value.

The political analyst also said that contexts and circumstances normally define the position of states, “because they compete among themselves,” and Angola has the “legitimacy” to redefine its position in the international system.

“And this is what Angola is doing, because it has interests in certain matters, and understands that its diplomacy should be treated and directed in this way. Now it is important that in the midst of this repositioning Angola does some diplomacy of gamesmanship with these three great world potentials,” Osvaldo Mboco remarked.

In April 2019, João Lourenço visited Moscow and spoke before the 450 members of the Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament) encouraging greater business cooperation in areas that contribute to the diversification of the Angolan economy.

Angola has had relations with Russia for decades, since the times of the former Soviet Union, mainly in the military, education and health fields.

Source: Lusa