European Union ambassador Riina Kionka is leaving South Africa after a tour marked by expanded trade and major support for South Africa's just energy transition and vaccine production - but also the trauma of Covid-19 and tension over Ukraine.
On Riina Kionka's watch as EU ambassador, South Africa registered its first trade surplus with the EU, despite Covid-19; the EU and other Western states agreed to put up $8.5-billion in financing to help South Africa move from its heavy dependence on coal-fired electricity generation towards renewables; and they also began supporting South Africa's development of its own mRNA vaccines for Covid-19 and other diseases.
But Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February clearly strained relations because of the yawning difference between Europe's full military and other support for Ukraine and Pretoria's reluctance even to condemn Russia's aggression.
Kionka - who, as an Estonian, clearly feels the existential threat of Russia more keenly than most - raised eyebrows in the South African government with her comments about South Africa's position.
On 3 March, the day after South Africa abstained from a widely supported resolution in the United Nations General Assembly condemning Russia's aggression against Ukraine, Kionka tweeted: "We were puzzled because...
