MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated the African countries’ heads of state and government upon Africa Day.

"Our country has always attached special importance to developing friendly relations with African partners. The 2019 Russia-Africa summit in Sochi created good conditions for expanding fruitful cooperation at the bilateral level and on the multilateral basis," Putin said in a message uploaded the Kremlin’s Telegram channel on Wednesday.

He expressed the certainty that by taking concerted action Russia and the African countries would successfully develop and implement many useful and promising projects and initiatives in a variety of fields for the sake of enhancing security and stability in Africa and the world over.

Africa Day is being celebrated on the continent and around the globe on May 25 for the 59th time. This year the 55-nation African Union declared that the activities would be held under the motto of strengthening the African countries’ food security.

Africa Day was established in Ethiopia’s capital Addis-Ababa on May 25, 1963, when 32 African countries founded the Organization of African Unity. Originally it was called Africa Liberation Day.