Uganda’s foreign policy has matured positively under President Museveni

Uganda’s foreign policy was a main feature during the second presidential candidates’ debate.

Under President Museveni and the NRM’s 30-year reign, Uganda’s foreign policy has both matured and crystalised. And deservedly, Uganda is a positively active and a much respected member of the international community. Let’s recall, however, that this was never always the case.

For instance, during the reign of self-styled Field Marshal Idi Amin’s junta, we were a regional and international pariah.

As illustrated by the fact that after Amin’s 1971 coup, Tanzania’s Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, out of principle, refused to officially associate with Amin as a fellow leader. Mwalimu had rightly argued that the military, including Uganda’s brutish military dictator’s place, were in the confines of a barracks and not State House!

Inevitably, this triggered the collapse of the East African Community and firmly laid the conditions that nurtured the October 1978 war that resulted in the Tanzanian Peoples Defence Forces, together with exiled Ugandan patriots, mainly organised under the banners of UPC-KikosiMaluum, FRONASA and Save Uganda Movement, kicking the murderous Amin out of power in early April, 1979. Amin’s Uganda was also placed under economic sanctions by the United States and the European Union.

Under President Museveni’s guidance, and informed by deeply ingrained pan-Africanism, today Uganda is at peace with all its four neighbours, and the world at large. Through deliberate policy championed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its missions, regional peace and economic interaction have been tirelessly promoted.

Uganda today is a pivotal member of the East African Community, the African Union and an influential actor within the United Nations.

Today, our main political and economic relations are in the main with sisterly African countries notably Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and South Africa. And this is big business! For Uganda’s exports to the East African Community market amounts to approximately $4 billion a year.

Furthermore, Uganda’s economic diplomacy, much of the investments and tourism that this country has attracted has been through the crafting of our foreign missions. With many of these being from Kenya, South Africa, Gaddafi’s Libya, China, the United States, Britain, mainland Europe, South Korea and the Arab world, among others.

The Museveni administration, through its New York Mission to the United Nations, managed to attract the transformative Entebbe United Nations Regional Service Centre. Since its establishment, it has injected hundreds of millions of US dollars into our economy, in addition to imparting skills to our population.

And through the good effort of our New York mission, this base is to be substantially expanded, to the obvious benefit of our local economy and the region.

Under Museveni, Uganda has also emerged as a crucial peace broker. For instance, in the 1990s during the tyrannical reign of Nigeria’s Gen Sani Abacha, the Organisation of African Unity mandated presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Museveni to intervene to save the life of former president and OAU chairperson Gen Olusegun Obasanjo. The former had incarcerated the latter on a treason charge.

Uganda’s role as a peace broker has also been noticeable in many of Africa’s trouble spots as in Libya, the Central African Republic, Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia and the DRC. Uganda also played a crucial medical diplomatic role in the recent West African Ebola outbreak where our experienced medical experts helped to end this pandemic.

Put more simply, though our foreign missions are operating under a tight budget, as noted by the eminent panelists during the presidential debate, they have performed exceedingly well.

Mr Nyago is Uganda’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.