International affairs analysts Ebenezer Tei-Mensah Tetteh and Edinam Dzramedo have shared similar opinions that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is not the best organisation to mediate the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine have for some months now been engaged in a cold war with the former accused by the West of amassing thousands of troops on the former’s borders.
Speaking on the YouTube-based talk show International Dialogue, Sunday, February 13, Tei-Mensah Tetteh said the ‘Non-Aligned Movement, to be frank, is not the best candidate to mediate the crisis. To be frank, you hardly even hear of them. I don’t know if any of you have heard of NAM trying to mediate the tensions [between Russia and Ukraine]?”
He said NAM would only come out with a response to the crisis only after Russia had possibly invaded Ukraine. Also speaking on the show, international affairs analyst Edinam Dzramedo agreed with Mr Tei-Mensah Tetteh’s submission, saying: “Do they even have the muscles to flex in this matter? The best they [NAM] can do, as Ebenezer said, is to give their usual rhetoric at the end of the day.”
She added that Russia is unlikely to “backdown until they reach a truce which favours them” in its crisis with Ukraine.
But the Programs Director at iWatch Africa, Justice Kumordzi, disagreed with the assertion that the Non-Aligned Movement has no muscles to mediate the crisis.
“This does not even call for a standby army. It is an opportunity for NAM to bring peace in the situation through advocacy or diplomacy and I encourage them to go all out to mediate the crisis,” he said.