MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov plans two trips to Africa in January and February, including visits to eight countries, Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov said on Wednesday.

"Two trips to Africa by Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov are coming up in January and February. Now he is scheduled to visit eight countries plus Morocco, we will have communication with Arab foreign ministers, including, of course, the Arab countries of North Africa," he said on Wednesday at the conference ‘Practical aspects of cooperation with African countries in the new conditions’ at the Russian Foreign Ministry's Diplomatic Academy.

As Bogdanov noted, neither the pandemic nor the Western anti-Russian campaign could prevent the further development of Russian-African multifaceted ties. "A lot of difficulties have been created in this direction, but in any case today's discussion will give an objective assessment of the new conditions in which we work, will help clarify and specify the practical aspects of further dynamic promotion of the whole complex of Russian-African mutually beneficial and mutually respectful cooperation, including keeping in mind the second Russia-Africa summit. Indeed all our activities are, in fact, focused on making this summit as efficient as possible," the diplomat added.