MOSCOW, July 28. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his counterparts from 31 African countries participating in the second Russia-Africa summit and economic-and-humanitarian forum discussed ways of strengthening mutually beneficial partnership as well as broaching international problems, the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday.
"A wide range of problems of the invigoration of the process of forming a new, polycentric world order were the focus of the meeting, where top diplomats from the Comoros, which holds the presidency of the African Union, Egypt, Namibia, Mauritania, Tunisia took part," the ministry said, summing up the results of the Thursday meeting. "In this context, the participants discussed issues of reforming the UN, ensuring Africa’s appropriate representation in the UN Security Council and other key multilateral structures. Sergey Lavrov stressed the inadmissibility of the West’s attempts to impose double standards in what concerns the settlement of international crises and conflicts, including the Ukrainian one. He also called for joint efforts to counter neocolonial approaches, defend historical truth and justice."
"Special attention was focused on current issues of further strengthening the Russian-African comprehensive long-term mutually beneficial partnership," it noted.
While discussing problems of food and energy security, "the Russian side reiterated its unfailing readiness to earnestly implement its international commitments concerning exports of agricultural products, fertilizers, energy and other critical supplies to African countries, as well as pledging its support, including free of charge, for the improvement of the humanitarian situation in the continent," the ministry said.
In his greeting message, Lavrov noted that this summit is called to specify priority areas of Russian-African cooperation and give it an extra impetus for years to come, it stressed.
The second Russia-Africa summit is running at the Expoforum convention center in St. Petersburg on July 27-28. Concurrently, the summit’s economic and humanitarian forum has been organized. Similar to the first Russia-Africa summit held in 2019, the current event is being held under the motto: "For Peace, Security and Development."
The event has been organized by the Roscongress Foundation. TASS is the information partner of the summit and the forum and the event’s photo hosting agency, as well as playing host to the second Russia-Africa media forum.