Decades of relations with Africa were revisited last Thursday February 9 in Yaounde.
The Embassy of the Russian Federation to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea based in Yaounde on Thursday February 9 revisited the achievements of its Foreign Ministry since its creation on February 10, 1802.
Ambassador Nikolai L. Ratsiborinskiy explained that the main aspirations of Russia today are stability and security in the world as a precondition for its own development. In this light, he said the country tries to do its best to settle all conflicts around it, mediate among cultures to focus efforts on construction and cooperation, not destruction and subversion. According to him, centuries of Russian diplomacy are today summarised in the slogans: friendship, confidence, cooperation and mutual respect.
Before the coming into place of professional diplomats following the creation of the Russian Foreign Ministry under the reign of Alexander I, the country’s diplomacy was carried out by clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church. Thus, its popes and monks formed the first set of diplomats. The Foreign Ministry anniversary celebration also featured a television documentary on Russia’s multi-faceted relations with Africa since the 1960s.
The Ambassador announced plans to double the number of annual scholarships offered to Cameroonian students from the present 15. Though relations with Cameroon have been good for a long time, they have not been transformed into concrete economic cooperation, he admitted.
The Ambassador said though Russia offers training in many fields, Cameroonian authorities often apply only for training in medicine. Although he understood the country’s desire to have more medical doctors, Mr. Ratsiborinskiy said he thought Cameroon also needed more geologists, engineers, specialists in communication, among others. He explained that Russian education is of high standard, but cheap as compared to what obtains in the West. Each year, between 150 and 180 Cameroonian students travel to study in Russia on their own sponsorship, assisted by an agency based in Douala, he disclosed.
