Ukrainian envoy: Developments on diamond market go against Russia’s interests

The relevant statement was made by Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of South Africa and Mozambique, Member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Kimberley Process Liubov Abravitova in an interview with Ukrinform.

As noted by Abravitova, at the G7 summit two years ago, participating countries discussed how they could ensure transparency in the diamond trade and agreed that the certification scheme needed to be improved. The point is that any consignment of rough diamonds, in accordance with the Kimberley Process rules, must be accompanied on the market by a special document, i.e. ​​a Kimberley Process certificate. This document indicates the countries of origin of the diamonds, their weight and value. But, in mixed consignments, which are formed from rough diamonds from different countries, the countries of origin are not indicated.

“Diamond grades and size do not matter for mixing, but large diamonds are obviously more valuable and easier to track, so the G7 countries decided to launch an initiative [in order to improve certification - Ed.] with them. The task of the diamond verification points (Antwerp in Belgium and, in the near future, in 2025, Botswana) is to encourage traders to provide evidence that the parcels do not contain Russian diamonds,” Abravitova told.

In her words, three years ago, Botswana offered to establish a Kimberley Process Secretariat on its territory as a body that would have a permanent staff to ensure the operation of this entity in the country.

“Botswana is one of the leaders in the diamond market, but at the same time a country whose economy is still critically dependent on this resource. For Botswana, the decision to join the transparent scheme and establish a diamond verification point on its territory, when the diamond has, relatively speaking, the ‘flag’ of Botswana and a guarantee of ‘non-Russian origin’, is a conscious choice in order to avoid additional costs for testing its own diamonds in third countries. Of course, such a development is not optimal for the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian envoy explained.

At the same time, Abravitova urged not to be deceived about pushing Russia out of the diamond market and not to celebrate ‘another victory’ in advance.

“This is a process where we need to work even more actively with all partners, explaining why Russian diamonds are really ‘blood diamonds’ and how this threatens not only the world order, but also the organization itself. After all, it must meet its purpose, and today’s Russia discredits the Kimberley Process by trying to make this ‘elephant in a china shop’ go unnoticed. More accurately, the developments on the diamond market do not meet Russia’s interests,” Abravitova concluded.

A reminder that, from January 1, 2024, G7 countries banned the import of Russian diamonds.