Russian President, Vladimir Putin has congratulated his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni upon re-election for another term of five years.
Museveni was on Saturday announced the winner of the hotly contested January 14 polls after garnering 58.6% of the votes against his closest rival and National Unity Platform’s Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine who got 34.8% of the votes cast.
In a brief message, Putin wished success for Museveni in the new term.
“Please accept sincere congratulations on your re-election as the President of the Republic of Uganda. Russia and Uganda have a traditionally friendly relationship. I hope your activities as the Head of State will further facilitate the development of mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation in various areas. I wish you success in your work, sound health, and well-being,” he said in the congratulatory message.
Russia-Uganda relations
The relations between Uganda and Russia have in recent years blossomed as the East African country is seen to be slowly moving away from the West.
In 2019, President Museveni was among the few African leaders who were invited for the first-ever Russia-Africa summit in the Russian Coastal city of Sochi.
Speaking at the sidelines of the summit, Museveni hailed Russia for always supporting the development of Uganda in terms of defence and security and Africa at large.
“Russia and Uganda are cooperating very well in the areas of defence and security by buying good quality Russian equipment including aircraft,” Museveni said.
He told Putin that ties between the two countries started way back during Africa’s fight for independence when Russia and China supported Africans in their fight for freedom.
According to Museveni, the relationship has grown through the years and noted that the Russia- China summit was long overdue.
“It will strengthen trade and bilateral relations between Africa and Russia. We are working on building workshops for maintenance and overhaul of equipment we get from Russia, like the aircraft which will greatly reduce costs,” Museveni said.
In response, Putin told Museveni that he sees possibilities for cooperation between Russia and Uganda along the trajectories of construction and cyber security, as well as on other tracks.
“We also see possibilities for cooperation in the field of construction, development of information technologies and cybersecurity, agriculture, medicine and pharmaceutics, telecommunications, operation and servicing of helicopters, as well as ecology,” Putin said.
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