By Drago Bosnic | June 19, 2023

Respecting deals between countries or governments goes back millennia and includes civilizations such as Sumerians and Ancient Egyptians. This was always considered a sort of litmus test of a certain countrys or rulers reputation and it stuck for a very long time. In essence, this practice predates the very concept of international law and is in many ways its direct predecessor. However, it would seem certain countries havent really got the memo about how important respecting treaties is and what disastrous consequences may follow if one doesnt.

On June 17, during a meeting with a number of African leaders and delegates who came to Moscow to offer a solution that would end the Ukrainian conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a shocking revelation and even gave details of a March 2022 peace deal with the Kiev regime. The agreement, titled the Treaty on the Permanent Neutrality and Security Guarantees for Ukraine (negotiated with the mediation of the Turkish government), was actually signed by the Kiev regime. However, the Neo-Nazi junta decided to discontinue its compliance with the treaty as soon as Russia kept its own initial end of the bargain.

Apart from other, more technical details, the deal included a clause that was supposed to be one of the key points of the Ukrainian Constitution and that would guarantee the countrys permanent neutrality. The very fact that Russia was insisting on this makes the claims that Moscow allegedly wanted to conquer Ukraine a moot point. In return for neutrality, the Russian military was to pull out and effectively end the special military operation (SMO). To back up his claims, President Putin also presented the relevant documentation of the abortive peace deal to the African delegates.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that, with President Erdogans assistance, as you know, a string of talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Turkey so as to work out both the confidence-building measures you mentioned, and to draw up the text of the agreement. We did not discuss with the Ukrainian side that this treaty would be classified, but we have never presented it, nor commented on it. This draft agreement was initiated by the head of the Kiev negotiation team. He put his signature there. Here it is, Putin stated and then presented the documents.

The documents also revealed that apart from Russia, other guarantors of the agreement were the United States, the United Kingdom and France. The only non-Western guarantor was China. The deal als...

Key Points of Vladimir Putins Meeting with African Peace Mission

MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. Russia is ready to review any proposals from African states on the Ukrainian settlement, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, receiving the representatives of seven African states, who arrived to present their peace initiative on Ukraine. Earlier, the African delegation discussed the initiative with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev.

During the talks with Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa presented the 10 main points of the peace plan, which include de-escalation of the conflict on both sides, diplomatic negotiations, ensuring sovereignty of states in accordance with the UN Charter, exchange of captives, post-war reconstruction and others. In response, Putin pointed out that Ukraine has withdrawn from the talks with Russia on its own initiative, although a peace agreement has been preliminarily signed in Istanbul. In addition, Russia was entitled to recognize the independence of DPR and LPR under the UN Charter, Putin noted.

The talks lasted for over 3 hours, and were subsequently commented upon by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Here are the key points from Putins conversation with the African leaders.

Africas balanced attitude

The African mission included President of Zambia Hakainde Hichilema, President of the Comoros Azali Assoumani (who also currently chairs the African Union), President of Senegal Macky Sall, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, Prime Minister of Egypt Mostafa Madbouly and Special Representatives of Presidents of the Republic of the Congo and Uganda Floran Nsiba and Ruhakana Rugunda.

In the beginning of the negotiations, Putin underscored that the comprehensive development of ties with African states is a priority of Russias foreign policy.

"We consistently advocate further strengthening of the traditionally friendly relations with African states and the main regional association - the African Union - based on princ...