Pandor declines appeal from European Union to persuade Russia to stop war against Ukraine

Minister Pandor meeting with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mr Borrell, OR Tambo Building, Pretoria. 26/01/2023 Photos: Katlholo Maifadi/DIRCO

By Peter Fabricius

27 Jan 2023

The foreign minister says the whole world, not just South Africa, must end the war.

South Africa has declined an appeal from the European Union to use its influence over Russia to persuade it to end its war against Ukraine.

EU vice-president and foreign minister Josep Borrell made the public appeal to his counterpart, Naledi Pandor, at the end of the 15th South Africa-European Union ministerial meeting, which they co-chaired in Pretoria on Saturday .

The EU has fully condemned Russia’s aggression and many of its members are arming Ukraine to repel the Russian invasion. This week some of them agreed to send tanks to Ukraine.

EU vice-president and foreign minister Josep Borrell in Pretoria on 26 January 2023. (Photo: Katlholo Maifadi / DIRCO)

By contrast, South Africa has maintained a non-aligned stance. It has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion at all and this week, after meeting Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Pretoria, Pandor said she had not even repeated to him the call her department made on Russia the day the invasion began to “withdraw immediately” from Ukraine and to respect that country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Borrell said in a press conference at the end of Friday’s meeting that whatever anyone else might like to call it, Russia had mounted “a full-scale invasion of a foreign country and an attempt to destroy it, killing Ukrainian civilians, destroying civilian homes, hospital power plants, and all kinds of civilian infrastructure”.

“Facts are facts. What’s happening in Ukraine is nothing less than a blatant violation of the United Nations Charter and the international rules-based international order. Its blatant action in disregard of the laws of national sovereignty is as much of a threat to Europe as it is to the whole world including Africa.

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“This is not only a European war. It’s happening on European soil but it affects the whole world. The consequences are felt around the whole world and the energy and the food crisis are the most evident direct result.

“We have always respected South Africa’s traditional non-aligned stance in foreign policy. The European Union doesn’t ask Africa to choose sides. We are just asking all the countries in the world to stand on the side of the United Nations Charter. Nothing more. But nothing less. Because what is at stake is the survival of multilateralism.

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“And the European Union regards South Africa as an important partner to uphold and reinvigorate a rules-based international order.

“This is why I very much hope that South Africa, our strategic partner, will use its good relations with Russia and the role it plays in the BRICS group to convince Russia to stop this senseless war.

Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor and EU vice-president and foreign minister Josep Borrell in the OR Tambo Building in Pretoria on 26 January 2023. (Photo: Katlholo Maifadi / DIRCO)

“And you are right, minister,” he told Pandor. “The question of peace in Ukraine is the most important one. We must see a political solution to the conflict because every conflict has an end and in principle the end of a conflict leads to peace.

“Therefore I think you could do an important contribution to this process.”

But Pandor in effect declined the invitation, saying the whole world has to work together to solve the Ukraine war as it had worked together to overcome Covid-19.

“It is not just South Africa or other African countries who should play a role in seeking peace. It is all of us who must work together to seek to arrive at a negotiated outcome that addresses the concerns of all the parties involved.” DM

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