Madagascar's president sacked his Foreign Minister Richard Randriamandrato on Tuesday, after he voted in favor of a UN resolution condemning Russia's "unlawful annexation of Ukraine" on October 12, in contravention of the neutral stance that many African countries have chosen since the start of the Ukraine war.
The French newspaper "Le Monde", which reported this news on L'Express de Madagascar, stated that the change in Madagascar's position last week immediately raised questions in the capital, Antananarivo, noting that there is a hypothesis That this decision was an initiative of the Minister, in which he did not coordinate with the Head of State, Andrey Rajoelina, and it was not with his approval.
Express spoke of an initial directive for the Madagascar mission to the United Nations to abstain from voting, but followed by a few minutes before the poll, an order to join the countries opposing Russia's annexation of 4 Ukrainian regions that it occupied months ago. Minister Randriamandrato explained in an interview with Radio France International after the vote that he "taken this The decision is according to his conscience," after making sure that "voting in this way does not endanger the interest of the nation (Madagascar)."
However, this decision did not raise any doubts about Madagascar's neutrality, according to the minister, who said in a previous interview with Le Monde, commenting on the topic, "We do not leave our neutral position on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which for us is a war that is far from our direct and daily concerns, We are 10,000 kilometers away from this area."
But he made it clear that "we cannot ignore the military escalation that has taken place for several months, and we cannot remain without condemning Russia's failure to respect the principle of territorial integrity of states by annexing 4 regions in eastern Ukraine."
Did Andrei Rajoelina face a fait accompli with this vote, or did he support this decision before he had to disavow a foreign minister under pressure from Russia?
Le Monde asks, to respond to that by saying that it is difficult to be certain about that, but what is certain - according to Le Monde - is that the decision to dismiss the minister comes in the context of Antananarivo's rapprochement with Moscow, which was embodied in, among other things, the signing of a military cooperation agreement months ago and a promise Russia cancels the bilateral debt of this country.