By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – Isolated president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has expressed keen interest in working with Namibian president-elect Dr Hage Geingob who will take over the country’s presidency in March next year.
Geingob revealed this in a statement issued this week, in which he acknowledged and thanked all those who have sent him congratulatory messages following his emphatic win in the recent general elections – wherein he obtained 87 percent of the presidential vote.
Namibia and Russia enjoy cordial relations dating back to the days of the liberation struggle, when the European superpower helped Swapo militarily to fight against Western-backed South African military forces.
After Namibia’s independence in 1990, Namibia and Russia forged bilateral ties, with each country opening an embassy in the other’s capital.
This prompted, in June 2009, Dmitry Medvedev to become the first Russian head of state to visit Namibia. Medvedev was accompanied by Russian businessmen, with a view to sign deals on diamonds and energy.
The visit resulted in the signing of a number of joint documents, including a memorandum of cooperation between Gazprombank and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor), an inter-governmental agreement on reciprocal encouragement and protection of investments, and a memorandum of intention between Rosrybolovstvo [Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries] and the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources of Namibia.
Currently, Putin’s Russia is a subject of heavy international trade sanctions following the perceived involvement of Moscow in the Ukrainian crisis, where pro-Russian rebels are seeking secession from Kiev.
News of his victory has been greeted with an outpouring of congratulatory messages from local politicians, traditional authorities, business personalities and international political heavyweights, said president-elect Geingob.
“Among the world leaders who have sent the Prime Minister their congratulatory messages are none other than Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation and Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, number one and number three on the Forbes World’s Most Powerful People list,” the statement said.
“In his message of congratulations, President Putin said that he looks forward to working with Dr Geingob to strengthen friendly relations and mutually beneficial co-operation between the Republic of Namibia and the Russian Federation.
“President Jinping, who said that Namibia is China’s all-weather friend in Africa, stated that he attaches great importance to the development of bilateral relations between Namibia and China and wishes to work with Dr Geingob to promote the standing friendly relations to a higher level.”
Other notable world leaders who have sent their messages so far include President Francois Hollande of France, Joachim Gauck, the President of Germany, President Anibal Cavaco Silva of Portugal and Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of Algeria.
There have also been messages of congratulations from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and from Juliao Mateus Paulo, secretary general of Angola’s ruling party, MPLA.
In Namibia, traditional leaders such as King Immanuel Kauluma Elifas of the Ondonga Traditional Authority have also congratulated the incoming president.
“The outpouring of messages reaffirms the fact that Dr Hage Geingob has entered the arena of world leaders and is being received with open arms as Namibia’s third president,” the statement reads.