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South Africa’s envoy to Ottawa asked Canada to help broker an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, arguing that sending weapons to Kyiv will only prolong the dangerous conflict that is aggravating hunger in developing countries.
“We have all the human instruments to end this war, but we just don’t want it,” said Rieaz Shaik.
In a wide-ranging interview, he said Russia must be held accountable, but called on the Trudeau government to drastically change course on its most pressing foreign policy issues.
“I hope they can stop for a moment and think [on] how much Canada has contributed to world peace. And why was it thrown away?”
South Africa is among 32 countries that have abstained from a United Nations vote calling on Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine.
While Canada and other G7 countries say they will support Ukraine for a long time, the majority of the world’s population lives in countries that chose to immediately punish Russia for its invasion.
Some people depend on trade with Russia, but others want good relations with Washington, Moscow and Beijing. Many expressed disdain for European concerns that took attention and development dollars away from longer conflicts elsewhere.
Soviet support decades ago for anti-colonial movements also prompted some to voice support for Moscow, even though Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.
South Africa was ruled by the African National Congress, a political party that grew out of an anti-apartheid organization whose members were trained by the Soviet Union in military tactics.
Shaik stressed South Africa’s motive was to avoid the conflict.
“Let me say it categorically: South Africa opposes the invasion of Ukraine. The violation of the UN Charter is unacceptable for us. The territorial integrity of Ukraine must be protected,” he said.
“The only part that says we have an alternative voice is that we don’t believe that the solution to these violations lies in war, or counter-war or anything else.”
Shaik said the United Nations Security Council should come up with a resolution to the conflict, although that would require reforming the institution that largely follows the same rules since 1945 and giving Russia veto power.
He said this approach would yield more than Ukraine and its Western allies refusing to hold peace talks with Moscow until Russia returns all the territory it controls.
“If you make the outcome of the negotiations a condition for negotiations, then you won’t negotiate,” he said.
Moscow’s concerns should be acknowledged, the envoy said
The ambassador said the world could do more to recognize that Moscow has security interests and commit to allaying its concerns. In exchange, Russia will be subject to an agreed mechanism to ensure that it respects Ukraine’s borders.
That was the exact idea behind the 2014 and 2015 Minsk ceasefire agreements that he said both sides did not respect, but which Ukraine said left the country vulnerable to further invasion. Russia said it could not order the separatists to honor the deal, despite creating the group.
“If Putin’s fear of NATO expansion is making Europe fragile, then remove that fear,” Shaik said.
He said it was a more productive response than wondering if Russia’s leaders were trying to rebuild the Tsar, or if Putin was mentally unstable, as Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly suggested.
“The only thing bogeyman narratives do is create fear. And we will never forget that fear breeds cruelty.”
Shaik added that any reconciliation process must look at the faults of both sides. “It’s hard to believe that in a war, only one side commits atrocities,” he said.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has documented mistreatment of Russian prisoners of war, although these reports are less common than documented abuses at the hands of the Russian army, and Kyiv is more likely to pursue criminal investigations.
South African authorities are expected to seek an International Criminal Court warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin if he follows through on plans to attend the BRICS summit – which also includes Brazil, India and China – this August in Johannesburg.
Ottawa has told developing countries that Russia is to blame for raising the cost of living and distracting the global community from tackling climate change. Canada’s ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae, has often made the case that not blaming would set a precedent for other countries to violate their sovereignty.
“There is no grand conspiracy against Russia. The international community is not anti-Russian. Russia faces the consequences of its own actions,” Rae told the General Assembly last October, shortly before the latest vote to condemn the invasion.
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