The National Day of the Russian Federation

By Her Excellency Mrs. Irada ZEYNALOVA | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Mauritius

The 12th of June each year marks Russia’s National Day – Day of Russia. Day which for me personally is a chance to take pride in our nation’s unique history, cultural diversity, and achievements. We celebrate all that we are proud of – political and economic freedom, racial and gender equality, mutual respect, dignity and inclusiveness.

This day is a moment for me to reflect on the achievements of partnership between Russia and Mauritius. We not only share a long-standing history of friendship, founded on the enduring ties established on March 17, 1968, just five days after Mauritian declaration of independence. I am proud that we continue this journey together – as our countries have chosen their paths and values and remain committed to them.

It is my second year here and I am proud to say that a lot of things that we were planning to do had been done. We promised – we did. And we are not going to stop. Because we are inspired. Because we have a vision of how our relations should develop.

And I am proud to list some of what we have already done. Because most of the projects that we started a year ago could be extended and developed this year. That is what we call in Russia – continuality.

The best example of that is the warm regards to all of us today from the Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. He is in orbit, at the International Space station but he visited Mauritius last year. He spoke to your experts about the space exploration and satellite images which are necessary for your agriculture, transportation, climate research. And this year his brother-in-space, cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, brought a gift from him here – a Mauritian national flag stamped with the special seal – #been to space#. Now the flag is at Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre. We hope that it will be a small step on a long road of our scientific cooperation.

I am sure that we have a lot ahead of us to do together. We have already done much – events that hopefully brought the entire island together, concerts of the Moscow Conservatoire and Russian ballet, synchronized swimming kid-show, exhibitions of photographs and paintings by Russian artists, movies and lectures, Russian cuisine evenings and cartoon painting masterclasses. We taught your children to dance and draw, we discussed Siberian mammoths with your students. We had the Week of Robotics and Computer Science as a simple proof – everyone can construct the future.

We donated the bust of one of the most world-famous composers, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, to Conservatoire de Mitterrand, as well as the documentary ‘The Unknown War’ to the Museum of Rodrigues. As well as the historical photo cameras to the Museum of Photography in order to broaden knowledge about Russian and extend their collection. As well as the equipment and trainings to Mauritian Chess Association, which now shows the great results at the online world championship organised by the famous Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin.

And this year, like all these 58 years along, we help students to obtain free scholarships in Russia — medical, agricultural, scientific ones. They will study there and come back to work for the benefit of Mauritius.

We are sure that the Indian Ocean does not divide us but connects. And this year we proudly made two big cultural and historical projects as a prove of that.

One, which is really meaningful for both countries, is about your national symbol, dodo. We were granted right to bring here an authorised copy of the only one in the world picture of dodo painted from a live wild bird. It was drawn by Ustad Mansur in the 17^th century and in the 19^th century bought for the Russian Tsar. Now it is not just preserved by Russia and stored in the State Institute of the Oriental Manuscripts in Saint-Petersburg. We consider it as a part of our mutual history and a symbol of our connection through the centuries. That’s why during this year we made public events for Mauritians, including exhibitions and student art competition ‘Inspired by Dodo’. And in a month the winners from Russia will come to Mauritius, they will be inspired to paint the island where the dodo is the national symbol. And Mauritian students will go to Russia to paint and study in our cultural capital, Saint-Petersburg. That is what we call synergy from heart to heart, from soul to soul. Together with the news agency ‘RT’ we are working on a documentary about the history of dodo in order to find an answer to a very crucial question for all of the scientific community – should human beings restore the extinct species or it has to serve as a reminder for all of us of how small and vulnerable our planet really is. This documentary will be filmed here in Mauritius and given to you as a gift.

Another project of our mutual history preservation is the memorial tomb for Russian sailors buried on the island. And we are extremely grateful for that to everyone who helped us not just to find the graves of the 6 brave men, who sailed here as crew members of the corvette ‘Olivutsa’ in 1857 and lost their lives trying to explore the routes to the Indian ocean, but to every Mauritian and Russian on the island who took part in this historical research, crowdfunding, construction of the monument, study of archives. It is really peoples’ project and peoples’ monument. And I would like to give special thanks to our friend Semen Kon’kov, Raisa Stukan and Anna Kosinskaya, who made their best on this long and complicated way. As well as Mauritian sculptor Marie Jocelyn Nankoo who poured all his talent and heart in our project. On the 20^th of June we will open the memorial tomb at the Cimetiere de l’Ouest. It will be a small sign of the Russian bravery and of the first Russian step on the soil of Mauritius.

We have been together not just for 58 years – from the very beginning of your independence – but historically.

And one more sign of that is the exhibition of the historical photos of Mauritius done by Russian photographers in 1968. All those photos are still in the archives of the TASS agency and they were gifted to the Mauritius Film Development Corporation as a good-will gesture.

We are proud that this year on the 9^th of May, we celebrated the 81^st Anniversary of the Victory in WW2 together with families of Mauritian veterans. It was our joint parade of Immortal Regiment – the special event of commemoration of heroes for the generations to come.

It is particularly significant that this year, following in the footsteps of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the Government of Mauritius strongly fights for the sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago – and is a historic act for Mauritius and its people. Russia has always supported Mauritius in this and will continue to do so – because we strongly believe in the importance of the decolonisation and sovereignty of the nations, equal rights and dignity for the best future of all Africa. Human rights constitute the base of the UN Charter and everyone should abide by this main framework of our civilisation.

Now the countries of the Global South understand what is truly happening in the world and why, especially with the background of the Iranian War and Hormuz closure, global threats of the energy and food security crises. We thank all African nations and will always remember their support at the challenging time for Russia – we value it.

This is why I want to speak of the future – a future by choice which every nation has the right to have. Choice which demonstrates its vision of future for the children.

This is why we invite Mauritius to continue what we have begun together in developing major projects in digitalisation, film, energy, sports, and economics. We will continue to teach and learn – together. We will continue to make our dreams come true – movie festivals, student exchanges, energy projects, food security, joint climate change response. Russia is always ready to share its warmth, knowledge and experience with its friends.

This year we fully understood – at the very vulnerable time, at the context of the very unsecure global environment, only cooperation, diversification, and insistence can help to win. Can help a dream to became reality. Can help to fulfil the vision of the future. The future for all of us. We made the initial steps on this road – let’s be brave and insistent. May the road rise up to meet us.

And for those who remember the sail training ship ‘Kruzenstern’ visit to the island last year and for all Mauritians we are planning to bring ‘Hope’ – that is the name of another historical sailing ship. And may the Hope be a good sign for the coming year. Sign of hope for the best future. Sign of hope for peace and prosperity.