KAZAN, May 18. /TASS/. Western representatives keep coming up with new ploys to disrupt the upcoming Russia-Africa Summit, but are proving to be only a minor irritant, Russian Ambassador-at-Large Oleg Ozerov told TASS on Thursday.
"Such attempts [to disrupt the summit] are continuous. They involve blackmail, threats and general demands to condemn Russia over the situation in and around Ukraine. However, we don’t think that this [antagonistic activity] will have any kind of fatal impact on the preparations for the summit," Ozerov, who heads the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, said on the sidelines of an event in Kazan, Tatarstan, titled "Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum."
According to the diplomat, the summit’s agenda will mostly address ways of boosting Russia’s cooperation with African countries, the development of international relations and the strengthening of Africa’s sovereignty overall.
The second Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum are twin events that are slated to take place in Russia’s "northern capital," St. Petersburg, on July 26-29. The inaugural event was held in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on October 22-24, 2019.