Between the 11-13 May the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uganda, Sam Kutesa, will make a work-related visit to Moscow at the invitation of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.

During their negotiations on the 12 May, the heads of the foreign services will discuss a wide range of issues about the state and further development of the Russian-Ugandan interaction and will exchange opinions on a range of the most topical international, regional and African problems.

Uganda as an authoritative member of the world community and an active participant of several regional associations and organisations plays a significant role in the rapprochement and integration of East African countries, processes of peacekeeping and settlement in "trouble spots" on the African continent.

Russia has traditionally enjoyed friendly relations and a fruitful interaction in different areas with Uganda, our old and time-proven partner. Our political dialogue is developing successfully. In December 2012, the President of the Republic of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, made an official visit to Russia.

The positions of Russia and Uganda on the key issues of world policy, approaches to the methods of forming a democratic system of international relations, the reinforcement of the central role of the UN in global affairs including the preservation of the leading role of its Security Council are similar or identical.

Today Uganda is one of the most important trade partners of Russia in East Africa. There are good prerequisites for further development of the trade and economic cooperation between our countries. There are interesting projects in areas such as construction, development of the transport infrastructure, extraction of hydrocarbons and other mined resources. The interaction in the military and technical area is continuing.

One of our prospective shared initiatives is our joint work for the purpose of the development of the fuel and energy complex of Uganda, the participation of Russian economic operators in the implementation of plans and programmes of the establishment of Ugandan oil and gas sectors and the electric energy sector.

Several joint projects are already being implemented successfully or are ready to be launched on the market in Uganda. They include cotton processing, construction of oil refineries, construction of urban housing and the supply of Russian commodities to Uganda.

We continue to assist Uganda in the preparation of national staff in Russian education establishments.

Moscow is convinced that the visit of the Ugandan Foreign Minister to Russia will allow the deepening of the political dialogue between the two countries and will give an extra impetus to the development of Russian-Ugandan relations in different areas.

10 May 2014