Uganda positions itself to reap from Russia’s return to Africa

What you need to know:

  • Ties. In December 2012, President Museveni visited Moscow and held bilateral talks with president Vladimir Putin on, among others, prospects in energy, engineering, geologic exploration, construction, finances and military supplies.
  • It is here, sources familiar with the matter say, the decision to have a Russian firm construct Uganda’s refinery was first mooted, Frederic Musisi writes.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) established diplomatic relations with Uganda three days after the country got independence from Britain in October 1962.

Two years later, the USSR signed two bilateral pacts on trade and economic/technical cooperation with Uganda that became basis for cooperation with former president Milton Obote’s government and contributed to his overthrow, mainly for associating with the socialists.

Fifty four years later, on Thursday last week, visiting Russian deputy minister of telecom and mass communications Alexey Volin, who was in the country for the first ministerial meeting of the Uganda-Russian Joint Permanent Commission, notwithstanding events that happened in the years in-between-, hinted on Kremlin’s intentions of rejuvenating relations not only with Uganda but the continent at large.

The announcement, not surprisingly entirely in the wake of ongoing tension between the West and Kremlin over Syria and Ukraine, also comes at the time when other global powers, China, India, and Japan, are cuddling Africa with trade deals, aid relief and technology transfer.

“We have never left Uganda. We have never left Africa,” Mr Volin told this newspaper on Thursday, at the event of signing bilateral agreements of several areas of cooperation which include, among others, trade, education, military cooperation, energy, mutual protection of classified information and combating illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs.

“In fact, we have always considered Uganda and Africa our close ally because we have many areas of common interest,” he said.

His remarks came on the heels of another revelation by Ugandan authorities that they are considering going back to the drawing board with the Russian-led consortium, RT Global Resources, for fresh negotiations on the financing and construction of the Shs12 trillion 60,000-barrels per day refinery.

RT Global Resources was a surprising choice when the announcement was first made in February 2015. Owned by Rostec, a Russian defence and military technology conglomerate, the consortium edged out a rival South Korean consortium despite its chief executive, Sergei Chemezov, being subject to United States sanctions since April 2014.

At the same time, the announcement of RT was not entirely surprising, for it signalled President Museveni’s desire to balance foreign interests, especially at a time his two biggest allies, the United States and European Union, were becoming nosy partners — accusing him for manipulating systems to cling to power and lecturing him about governance deficits and breakdown of rule of law in the country.
Earlier on in 2011, President Museveni withdrew $740 million (about Shs1.7 trillion) from the Treasury for the procurement of six Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighters from Russia that got everyone talking, including the donors.

In the immediate aftermath of the general election early this year, as the West continued to rebuke Museveni’s government over the intimidating environment in which the elections were conducted and which they also said fell below standards for democratic principles, Moscow issued a statement hailing President Museveni’s win as a demonstration of the broad support for the NRM government.

For his swearing in on May 12, Moscow sent its deputy minister of foreign affairs Mikhail Bogdanov whom, together with representatives sent by Beijing, President Museveni described as the “genuine friends of Uganda”.

Uganda-Russia relations
Even after the overthrow of president Milton Obote in a coup said to have been masterminded by Britain and Israel, successive governments did not sever diplomatic relations with the USSR during the Cold War.

President Museveni, who is said to have had a Marxist background, first met Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2004 on the sidelines of the G8 Summit held at Sea Island. In 2008, Russia’s first deputy minister of foreign affairs Andrey Denisov visited Kampala and signed a Memorandum of Consultations between the foreign affairs of the two countries, reinvigorating relations between the two countries.

In the summer of 2009, President Museveni made a private visit to Moscow where he held talks with foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Yevgeny Primakov on prospects of Uganda.

He travelled to Moscow again in December 2012 on a state visit and held bilateral talks with president Putin on, among others, prospects in energy, engineering, geologic exploration, construction, finances and military supplies. It is here, sources familiar with the matter say, that the decision to have a Russian firm construct Uganda’s refinery was first mooted. Earlier on, President Museveni had been scouting for investors in Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The two leaders also agreed to the establishment of an inter-governmental commission on economic, scientific and technical cooperation between the countries. The establishment was actualised in May 2015 when State minister for International Affairs Okello Oryem and Mr Volin signed the agreement for the commission that will eliminate obstacles of doing business and open up Uganda to Russian companies.

The first ministerial meeting of the commission was held this week, with the signing of more bilateral frameworks between the two countries. Mr Volin described the agreements as “important for Russia”.
Uganda’s Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa, who witnessed the signing, said Uganda will be the principle beneficiary from this framework.

“We have a lot to learn from Russia,” he remarked. “So we had to first do away with the barriers to allow the opportunities set in as we work on our mutual interests.”
There are no recent statistics of trade volumes between the two countries, but in 2010 the Federal Customs Service of Russia indicated trade turnover stood at $49 million. Russia exported goods to Uganda worth $29.3 million (wheat, medicine, tires, metal, spare parts) and imported goods worth $19.7 million (cashew nuts, tea, coffee, spices, tobacco).

The two countries also maintain close defence and military relations. Rostec, the lead partner in the RT consortium is a renowned supplier of military hardware to the Ugandan military. Early this year, for example, Russian Helicopters, a holding company of Rostec, supplied government with a VIP version of the Mi-171E helicopter as part of a contract signed in 2015 with Rosoboronexport.

Russia’s return to Africa

Uganda is among the 40 African countries in which Moscow maintains diplomatic presence, and similarly a number of African leaders have been welcomed in Moscow.

A former Cold War power, the country has since the collapse of the USSR in 1991 been continually isolated from world politics by its biggest ally and nemesis, the United States and EU.

At the time of USSR’s collapse, it had launched agreements with 42 countries on trade, and with 37 African countries on technical and economic assistance, not to mention the more than 25,000 Africans educated in Soviet institutions. More than 4,000 Ugandans have been educated in Russia/USSR.

But with almost all other global powers scrambling for the continent, some observers often argue that Moscow is indeed returning with “soft power” seeking allies, especially on the international organisations such as the UN often dominated by US and its European and Latin American allies.