'Win-Win' for All: CAR's a Nation With 'Great Potential' for BRICS, Foreign Minister Says
© AFP 2023 BARBARA DEBOUT
Subscribe
Exclusive
Relations between the Central African Republic (CAR) and the grouping of Russia, China, South Africa, India and Brazil have recently intensified, with plans to locate the group's next headquarters in Central Africa, and to open a local branch of the BRICS Bank.
The BRICS countries can help the Central African Republic "lift its head above water," and at the same time, Central Africa, as a country with "great potential," has much to offer the group, Central African Republic's Foreign Minister Sylvie Baipo-Temon told Sputnik.
"When we talk about the BRICS, we are talking about a group of States with a common vision. But it is also a number of states from which CAR could benefit from experience and skills. […] We are able to strengthen a cooperation that will allow the CAR to close a gap in terms of development, because all these states are recognized as states with a well-supported economy," Baipo-Temon said.
The minister also responded to the concrete implementation of cooperation between BRICS and the CAR, namely, plans for the opening a regional representative office of the institution in the capital city of Bangui, which was announced in mid-April by CAR's trade and industry minister, Lea Mboua in an interview with Sputnik.
The minister called the expected establishment an "honor" for the country, stressing that not only the CAR, but also the BRICS countries will benefit from it.
"This also means - because Africa is tomorrow's future - we, as an African country, need the experience, the sustained economy of the BRICS countries and others. But we know that the BRICS, like any other state, also needs African countries and particularly the Central African Republic, because the CAR is a country with great potential and holds a number of materials that the economies of the world need," Baipo-Temon noted.
Considering the increase in ties with BRICS and the election of Faustin-Archange Touadera as head of CEMAC, the minister explained the intensification of diplomatic efforts by the desire to "diversify its partners."
"We must know that we are no longer in an era of alignment. […] We need to diversify partnerships, because today the world has evolved, countries that belonged to what was then called the third world - and today have entered the path of developing countries - must be able to use their diplomatic efforts to no longer be on the periphery of the international community," Baipo-Temon said.
According to the minister, cooperation with the BRICS fits into the paradigm of diversification of the country's relations, because it provides the opportunity to develop "healthy relationships, respectful relationships and above all win-win relationships."
It is important, Baipo-Temon said, for the CAR to be able to speak on the world stage with its own voice.
"Even when you go to the doctor, you bring your child, and it is the child who has to say where it hurts, so it is up to the Central African Republic to be able to say what its needs are, what its suffering is, what its aspirations are, what its prospects are," she underlined.
Earlier, the CAR's trade and industry minister, Lea Mboua, told Sputnik that the opening of a branch of the BRICS' New Development Bank in the Central African Republic will be a logical step after the planned opening of group's next headquarters in Central Africa.
