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War 'Declared by NATO, Led by Washington': Eritrean Leader on Ukraine Crisis and Western 'Hegemony'

19:30, 2 June 2023
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Maxim Grishenkin
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Eritrea's president gave a wide-ranging interview on global issues following his recent visit to Moscow, where he held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and was invited to the second Russia-Africa summit.
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Eritrea stands against the "hegemony" of the United States and NATO which punishes countries that don't share their ideology, as in the case of the Ukrainian crisis, which is nothing more than "a war declared by NATO, led by Washington," Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki said in an exclusive interview with Sputnik Africa.
According to the Eritrean president, a global order based on US containment of states capable of "competing" with them is not beneficial to anyone.

"Not yesterday or the day before, but we said this is not the kind of all world order that the peoples of all continents need. Nobody needs this kind of policies, hegemony, control and not allow people to grow and work hard to try to change their quality of life," Afwerki noted, adding that Eritrea has been a victim of this Western approach.

The leader of Eritrea believes that this American policy of containment has also been directed at Russia for 30 years since the end of the Cold War, when the idea came to "control everything and everyone, influence the world, divide the world into zones of influence."
The US and NATO declared war on Moscow with their policy of deterrence of Russia, Afwerki asserted.

"Because of the background of the Cold War era, this [Western] obsession of containing Russia was there for the last 30 years. If you are containing one nation not to grow, not to compete, not to be able to make its contributions, then you are declaring war," Eritrea's leader said.

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To date, this Western approach has led to the Ukrainian crisis, Afwerki noted, explaining that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is nothing more than "a war declared by NATO, led by Washington."
"People should not come and tell us there is war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. This is not a war between Russian Federation and Ukraine. This is a war declared again on Russia for the last 30 years," Afwerki stressed.
Afwerki emphasized that today's crisis has gone beyond the regional dimension to become a concern of global proportions.

"It's not an isolated Russia. This is a global issue. And we need an order, a global order or a world order that enables everybody to share, cooperate. Complementarity will have to be there," Afwerki remarked. "You can't contain one nation. You can't force or even use force, all sorts of coercion to subdue nations. This is not acceptable."

According to the East African nation's leader, Russia has the right to defend itself, to act together with other countries to defend "a world order that enables everybody to share, cooperate," which is what Eritrea supports.
Eritrea was one of the states to vote against a United Nations resolution on March 2, 2022, condemning the Kremlin's special operation in Ukraine.
A year after the start of the operation, Eritrea also voted against a UN resolution demanding that Russia immediately stop hostilities and withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
In 2014, Eritrea was the first country to send its foreign minister to Crimea after the peninsula overwhelmingly chose to reunite with Russia.
OpinionEritreaRussiaEast AfricaWestAfrica in DetailsinterviewIsaias AfwerkiUkraine crisisInternational