President Ruto attends South Korea-Africa summit in diplomatic U-turn

President William Ruto is among African leaders attending the South Korea-Africa summit taking place in Seoul.

In what may be regarded as the eating of a diplomatic humble pie, the President has gone against his own word having vowed not to attend such summits.

The Head of State is on record saying it is not intelligent of African leaders to attend such summits en masse and should instead consider sending representatives from the African Union headquarters.

Nine months after he was sworn into office, President Ruto took what sounded like a radical departure in global diplomacy, and declared that he will take a different approach when it comes to engagements between African leaders and certain developed nations.

“We have decided, that it is not going to be business as usual. We have these meetings, US-Africa, Europe-Africa, Africa-Turkey and now there is another one, Russia-Africa. We have made the decision, it is not intelligent for 54 of us, to go and sit before one gentleman from another place... and sometimes we are mistreated, we are loaded into buses like school kids, and it is not right,” Ruto said during the Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend at KICC in April 2023.

Speaking to business magnet Mo Ibrahim then, a buoyant President Ruto then committed the African Union to his new stance on foreign meetings.

“The decision that we have made as AU, is that going forward, if there is a discussion between Africa and any other country, we are going to be represented by the AU chair, and that should be sufficient and should be able to represent Africa,” he stated.

“That is the position I am taking as the President of Kenya for any other meeting of all the requests for meetings. We respect the sovereignty of others; I think asking for reciprocation is not to ask for too much.”

The President went on to commit individual Heads of State and Government, saying they too had taken the same position.

“Because I had a conversation with President Kagame and he actually led that particular position. I had a conversation with Prime Minister Abiy and he believes very strongly that that should be the position of our continent, because as we have said, if we do not respect ourselves, no one will respect us,” Ruto added.

But pictures from Seoul, South Korea suggests the eating of a diplomatic humble pie, with President Ruto in attendance as well as 48 of the 54 African Heads of State and Governments.

Other leaders in attendance are Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, despite being mentioned by President Ruto as having committed to not attending such forums.

South Korea is the latest developed nation to host an Africa Summit, bringing together a large gathering of continental leaders.

This is President Ruto’s second similar event since making the remarks, including the Italy-Africa summit in January.

His vow seemingly turning into water under the bridge as geo-political realities dawn on the President.