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Russia to focus on problems in Africa during UN Security Council’s presidency — Lavrov

According to the Russian top diplomat, any UNSC reform should have as its main task the increase of the organization’s representation from Asia, Latin America and Africa

Angolan Foreign Minister Manuel Domingos Augusto and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Artyom Geodakyan/TASS

Angolan Foreign Minister Manuel Domingos Augusto and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

© Artyom Geodakyan/TASS

MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/. During its presidency in the UN Security Council next month, Russia intends to bring attention of the global organization to the settlement of problems on the African continent, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

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"Russia will be presiding in the UN Security Council next month, in September, and one of the key issues on our agenda concerns the assistance to the people of Africa in resolving their problems in regard to crises, conflicts and other situations," Lavrov told a news conference after talks with his Angolan counterpart Manuel Domingos Augusto.

The rotating presidency in the UN Security Council is held by each of the organization’s members each month. Russia is taking the rotating chair next month from Poland, which presided over the organization in August.

"We should stress that in regard to such acute issue as the necessity of the UN Security Council’s reformation, Russia holds a strong stance of achieving a broad agreement with the priority focus to overcoming the main setback in the current composition of the UN Security Council, which is an under-representation of developing countries," the Russian minister continued.

"Any reformation of the UN Security Council should have as its main task an increase of the organization’s representation from Asia, Latin America and, certainly, the African continent," Lavrov said.

Russia’s top diplomat also stated that "the cooperation of African states with the BRICS organization [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa] played an important role on the agenda of the present-day international relations."

"We have agreed that we would carry on with the practice, which we started in 2018 by inviting representatives of the leading sub-regional organizations from Africa to the BRICS Summit," Lavrov added.

On October 24, Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi is set to host the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit. The leaders of more than 50 countries of the region were invited for the summit and 35 of them have already confirmed their participation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will co-chair the summit in Sochi. Egypt is presiding over the African Union in 2019.

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