World has chance to expand definition of ‘blood diamond’ due to Russia's aggression against Ukraine – ambassador
Liubov Abravitova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of South Africa and Mozambique and a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Kimberley Process, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.
The diplomat noted that Ukraine is a full member of the Kimberley Process (a collegial intergovernmental body that operates in accordance with UN resolutions aimed at preventing the trade in so-called “conflict” or “blood” diamonds, uniting 85 countries - ed.). According to the government's decision, Ukraine is represented in this organization by the Ukrainian State Gemological Center at the Ministry of Finance in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“It turned out that we became the target of aggression from a country that is a leading global producer of diamonds. That is why our role in the Kimberley Process is now very important, as the world has a chance to expand the definition of a ‘conflict’ or ‘blood’ diamond through the prism of Russia's aggression against Ukraine and take it beyond local internal conflicts,” Abravitova said.
She emphasized that the world has never seen such a scale of conflicts before, particularly involving a country that produces diamonds. Therefore, the reform of the organization and a more global discussion of the conflict diamond issue have become even more topical.
As reported, Botswana, together with the G7, will open a diamond certification center in 2025 to encourage traders to provide evidence that mixed parcels made up of diamonds mined in different countries do not contain Russian diamonds.
As of January 1, 2024, the G7 countries banned the import of Russian diamonds.
