CAIRO, December 19. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in the second ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, to be held in Cairo on December 19-20.
It will be the first event of the format held on the African soil, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Invitations have been sent to African foreign ministers and the heads of executive bodies of African integration associations, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has told reporters. In her words, the meeting is expected to additionally boost Russian-African partnership and strengthen its truly strategic nature.
The participants will exchange views on the most important issues on the international and Russian-African agenda, with a focus on implementing the action plan of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum for 2023-2026 adopted at the second Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg in 2023.
"We will discuss the interim results of implementing the joint action plan. We will pay particular attention to preparations for the third Russia-Africa summit, which is planned for 2026," Lavrov said at a recent meeting of the council of heads of Russia’s constituent entities.
A thematic event is expected to be held for the relevant Russian and African ministries and organizations on the sidelines of the conference. It will aim, in part, at unlocking the potential of trilateral Russia-Egypt-Africa cooperation in the economy and education.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said in an interview with TASS that Lavrov would hold a number of separate talks with his African counterparts and sign a set of documents on the sidelines of the event.
Landmark event
The Russian Foreign Ministry described the ministerial meeting in Cairo as a landmark event for Russian-African relations this year, and as an important part of preparations for the third Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled to be held in 2026.
The new format of dialogue, the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, was created in 2019. Two summits were held as part of the forum - in Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi in 2019 and in its second-largest city of St. Petersburg in 2023. The first ministerial conference took place in Sochi in November 2024.
The Russian side expects the conference to give an additional impetus to the multifaceted cooperation of Russia and Africa on an equal and mutually beneficial footing.
Strategic cooperation
According to Russia’s top diplomat, cooperation with Africa is of strategic nature for Russia and remains one of its key foreign policy priorities.
The event will focus on trade, economic, as well as investment cooperation. "We appreciate that the trade turnover with Africa is growing steadily: compared to 2019, it increased by more than one and a half times, exceeding $27 billion last year," Lavrov said.
Currently, increased trade with the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, expansion of supply of African products to the Russian market, and introduction of reliable mutual settlement mechanisms based on national currencies are on the agenda, the top Russian diplomat added.
Vershinin, in turn, told TASS that Moscow can help Africa gain true economic sovereignty.
Africa's importance to Russia is marked by the expansion of its diplomatic presence on the continent. "Embassies in Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan have been opened this year. Next are new diplomatic missions in Gambia, Liberia, Togo and the Comoros," Lavrov wrote in an article for the African media.
In his words, Russia welcomes the plans of Botswana and Togo to open their diplomatic missions in Moscow
Security challenges
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vershinin said that prospects for creating a sustainable architecture for Africa’s socio-economic, investment, infrastructure, and technological development are "difficult to imagine without the swift resolution of the acute challenges facing the continent in the area of peace and security."
Moscow is convinced that effective and long-term settlements in the region’s hotspots can be achieved primarily "with Africans themselves playing the leading role in this process and exclusively in their own interests." "Our approaches in this area are based on unconditional respect for the sovereignty of African states, the principles of mutual respect and equality, non-imposition of ready-made solutions, and the provision of assistance in those areas and to the extent requested by our African partners," the official said. "We consistently support the cornerstone principle of ‘African solutions to African problems’ and the key goal set by the African Union in its Agenda 2063 - to ‘silence the guns’ by 2030," he added.
According to the deputy minister, the "criminal actions of the Kiev regime and its patrons, who cooperate with local terrorist groups and provide them with support," pose a grave threat not only to Africa, but to the entire world. "They are using these groups, in particular, to terrorize the civilian population of certain Sahel states and to carry out acts of sabotage against the interests not only of Russia, but of other countries as well," the diplomat warned.
Lavrov, in turn, stressed that Russia is an old and trusted friend of Africa. In his words, values of collectivism, solidarity, and mutual assistance are at the core of the Russian cultural code, which is generally in line with the African philosophy of Ubuntu - "I exist because we exist." "On this sound basis, we will develop our friendship and cooperation, while respecting each other's civilizational features," he wrote.