Russian President Vladimir Putin
MOSCOW, April 14 (NNN-TASS) — The date and venue of the Russia-Africa summit in 2022 will be determined in the immediate future, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
The second [Russia-Africa] summit is expected to be held in an African country in 2022.
“The venue and timeframe are to be determined in the immediate future via diplomatic channels,” Lavrov said.
“Pursuing the aim of consolidating the Sochi success, upon the instructions of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Secretariat was established at the Russian Foreign Ministry in May 2020,” he said.
“Its main function is to prepare Russian-African summit meetings and to coordinate the implementation of decisions approved by them,” he added.
The Russian foreign minister said that the concept and roadmap of the leaders’ future summit were being worked out. According to the minister, their content will “also reflect the African partners’ priorities.”
“Concrete proposals for consolidating Russian-African cooperation are being worked out by three councils (coordinating, public and scientific ones) reporting to the Partnership Forum Secretariat. They represent ministries, agencies, business and public organizations engaged in the development of relations with the African continent,” the minister added.
Lavrov recalled the launch of the Association of Economic Cooperation with Africa, which comprises major Russian economic operators motivated to collaborate with Africa. He added that as soon as the epidemic situation eases, the association plans to arrange a series of business missions to Africa.
The Russian foreign minister specified that Russia’s integration with African nations was not in question.
“Moscow is poised to build relations of strategic partnership with pan-African organizations and regional integration associations. Two fundamentally pivotal documents were inked at the Sochi summit, namely the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Russian Federation and the African Union on basic principles of relations and cooperation and the Memorandum of Understanding between the Eurasian Economic Commission and the African Union on economic cooperation. A roadmap of cooperation between Russia and the Southern African Development Community (SADS) is being finalized,” he said.
On Oct 23-24, 2019, the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi hosted the first-ever Russia-Africa Summit, co-chaired by Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt. All 54 African countries participated in the event. Of those, 43 were represented at the top level. — NNN-TASS