MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. Moscow expects that most African countries will ignore threats and blackmail from the West and take part in the second Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg, Russian Ambassador at Large Oleg Ozerov told the international forum "Russia-Africa: Cooperation as a Path to Sustainable Development" on Tuesday.

"We certainly expect the participation of most African states in the summit," said Ozerov, who heads the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum. "We are convinced that most leaders of the states will ignore those open threats and outright blackmail from Western states, which literally demand that African states stop cooperating with Russia," he said.

"We are sure that no one will be scared, since there is a huge request for cooperation from both sides - from the Russian side and from the African one," Ozerov added. "We have mutual interests that we can unite now," the diplomat stressed.

Russia and Africa have "really very good prospects in terms of establishing cooperation in science and technologies," Ozerov said. "We have things to offer, and very competitive," he stressed.

The second Russia-Africa summit and economic forum are scheduled for July 26-29 in St. Petersburg. The first summit was held on October 22-24, 2019 in Sochi under the slogan "For Peace, Security and Development.".