MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. African countries should have the ability to independently manage their national resources, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said in an interview with TASS.

"Africans should have every opportunity to manage their national resources on their own for the benefit of addressing the socio-economic challenges they face, rather than continuing to finance the prosperity of the United States, the European Union, NATO, and their allies at their own expense," he said.

According to the deputy minister, Russia has always been ready to lend a helping hand to its African friends. He also stressed that the West’s confrontational policies, which "cynically disregard Africa’s security and development," should be countered by uniting the efforts of the global majority "to finally rid the continent of Western dictatorship and all forms of neocolonialism."