President Museveni on Thursday held bilateral talks with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of the ongoing second Russia-Africa Summit in Saint Petersburg.
Museveni outlined areas of cooperation with Russia that include oil exploration, nuclear power energy, fertilizers, the pathogenic economy, electric batteries, and space science that would enable Uganda to have its dedicated satellite.
“In that regard, I have invited Russia to take interest in many business opportunities in fields of oil and gas, agriculture, production, the pathogenic economy, industry and space science,” Museveni stated.
He urged Putin to discourage by policy the importing of raw materials from Africa but instead work with the African governments to add value to products at source as this would transform the economies of the continent in a very short time; from low-middle income to high middle-income status.
“My main proposition to Russia is that they discourage, by policy, the importation of raw materials from Africa and instead work with Africans to add value to their raw materials at source.”
On the military side, Museveni said Uganda has managed to become an island of peace in this part of the world, due to its cooperation through procurement of equipment from Russia over the years.
Uganda remains Russia’s key ally and partner
Putin, on his part, said that Russia remains committed to strengthening cooperation between Russia and Africa in economic, political, security, trade and humanitarian areas.
He said that Uganda remains one of Russia’s key partners and allies on the African continent with the diplomatic relationship that stretched over 60 years.
He added that due to the good relationship under cooperation trade between the two countries has increased five times in the last six months compared to last year.
He said that the Russian government was to double the education scholarships to the Ugandan students and up two modern mobile laboratories that can diagnose many diseases including epidemic ones.
Putin further said that he was happy that Uganda and Russia have close positions in the international arena that he said is based on the commitment to shaping a just world that is accommodative to everyone and expressed happiness that Uganda was to chair the non-allied movement.
The meeting was attended by Foreign Affairs Minister, Jeje Odong, Defence Minister, Bamulangaki Sempijja, and Health Minister, Jane Ruth Aceng, among others.
Meanwhile, the two-day Russia–Africa Summit that kicked off Thursday is the highest-profile and largest-scale event in Russian African relations, aimed at bringing about a fundamentally new level of mutually beneficial partnership to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
The goal of the event is to promote efforts to strengthen comprehensive and equal cooperation between Russia and African nations across all areas of society including politics, security, economic relations, science and technology, and the cultural and humanitarian spheres.
