GUEST EDITORIAL: Liberia’s Relation with Russia – A Risk Too Dangerous To Take

A RECENT SOCIAL MEDIA post shows Liberia’s Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ibrahim Nyei, in a photo with a Russian official, and beaming with smile, to demonstrate that he recently led Liberia’s representation to the Russian-African Ministerial Summit in SOCHI, Russia.

WHETHER THIS IS true or not, the Summit, according to AP News, is billed as building on last summer’s Russia-Africa Summit, where Russian President Vladimir Putin was said to have courted leaders from Africa, and offered to expand political and business ties across the continent.

As a further confirmation of this development, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is quoted in a Facebook past as announcing to open a Russian embassy in Liberia as part of its strategy to broaden diplomatic ties across Africa.

IN THE DIPLOMATIC circle, the establishment of ties does not start and end with discussions at the ministerial levels; it is done at the presidential levels where key decisions made and views on mutually beneficial objectives of the two countries are exchanged.

LEST, WE FORGET, Russia wants to weaken America’s influence in Africa by providing economic aid to greedy regimes, and Liberia seems a breeding ground to mock western democracy and rule of law. It is therefore clear that Mr. Lavrov’s public pronouncement of establishing a Russian Embassy on Liberia soil is apparently premised on discussions had, views exchanged in both economic and political terms, at the level of presidency at the expense of Liberia’s support for the people of Ukraine.

THE OPEN SECRET is that under President George Manneh Weah, Liberia never participated in, nor gave any credence to the Russian-African Summit, which is a prelude to the recent Ministerial Conference in SOCHI, and therefore, it makes quite a pathetic reading to see that Russia has offered to build on last summer’s agreement with African leaders in which Liberia was never a party in expanding its political and business ties across Africa.

THE PRESENCE OF Liberia’s delegation at this year’s Ministerial Summit in SOCHI, raises a fundamental question as to which direction our country is heading; and where does Liberia stand on the war between Russia and Ukraine.

WHILE IT IS TRUE that the President of the Republic of Liberia  is the  Chief Foreign Policy Architect under Article 57 of the 1986 Constitution, and may decide the country’s  foreign policy direction, it however  makes quite a difficult reading to imagine how a country like Liberia deemed as America’s “traditional partner” in the  strategic architecture of global politics,  could have suddenly  jettisoned Liberia’s  historic opposition  to  Russia and its recent  invasion of Ukraine to embrace its so-called idea of expanding political and business ties across Africa.

ALL PLATITUDES ASIDE, Russia is, and incredibly remains a core enemy of western values, i.e.  freedoms, democracy and rule of law, and the war in Ukraine is a clear testament of Vladimir Putin’s myopic attempt to destabilize Ukraine’s progressive development by reinventing the wheels of medieval politics of “might makes right.”

WE SUBMIT THAT Liberia, as a democracy, and a forerunner of self-determination in Africa, and   for the people of every clime, cannot and should not be easily baited by Putin incendiary rhetoric of expanding political and business ties to unduly   license the callous and blatant disregard of the territoriality of the Ukrainian State under the pretext of establishing diplomatic relations   on the tears of innocent Ukrainian civilians.

THAT SAID, WE are however not indifferent to the fact that America has shown little or no concrete interest  in Liberia’s economic development agenda, and in the last 50 years has nothing to show for its so-called “strategic partnership relation” with Liberia,  which is why   the country is and  remains wretched by every stretch of imagination, lagging behind the rest of Africa,  and there’s a  compelling need to reset  country’s political trajectory and redefine the true meaning of its “strategic interest” in the geo-political architecture,  notwithstanding, it is   foolhardy, and  somewhat a dangerous political prank, with incalculable political consequences in the offing,  for any government including  the UP-led administration headed by President Joseph  Nyuma Boakai,   to think that it can   craft  the rebranding  of  the country’s foreign policy objective  on the altar of deception by mortgaging  Liberia’s   unbridled  defiance against Russia’s  excesses and its refractory politics of terror, murder  and mayhem  in  Ukraine.

TRULY, LIBERIA’S NEW found relationship with Russia may seem something palatable to smile about because of what is there to grab, judging from how the Minister presented it to us, and how Russia has expressed its willingness to give economic aid to the Government, but in truth, there is more to Russia’s objective of establishing diplomatic times with Liberia at this time, than meet the eyes.

WE ALSO SUBMIT that in geo-political context, with the reign of terror and mayhem in Ukraine, it is a diplomatic gaffe, if not a   risk too dangerous to take, for the Government to engage in a conduct of wooing Russia in a fashion that reawakens the long held suspicion derived from the July 26, 2024 Independence Day’s oration delivered by Madam Rodtel Pailey, in which she condescendingly rebuked America of doing little or nothing to help Liberia.

ALTHOUGH THE GOVERNMENT has since distanced itself from the statement, what other evidence is needed to demonstrate that Liberia’s current attempt to woo Moscow is exactly what Madam Parley opted for in her Independence Day’s Oration?

FINALLY, THE CHALLENGE to reset Liberia’s foreign policy objective is not to gamble our long held traditional partnership with America and its western allies on critical issues for thirty pieces of silver but to continue to assure our partners that we are truly a democracy with or without their support!

INDEED, LIBERIA’S RELATION with Russia at this time, is a risk too dangerous to take.