PRETORIA, August 3. /TASS/. During their latest meeting on July 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of seven African nations noted that some progress in implementing several provisions of the African peace initiative had been made since their previous meeting on June 17, according to their joint statement published by the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Among the areas of progress, the leaders named issues related to the rights of children in armed conflict zones and prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine.
"The Leaders recognized progress achieved since then on proposals they discussed at the first meeting on 17 June 2023 on humanitarian issues, in particular, related to the rights of children in areas of armed activities and prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, and agreed that humanitarian efforts would continue to bring further results," the document says.
"The Leaders agreed to continue their dialogue on the African Peace Initiative so that a door to peace can be opened," it says.
Putin met with participants of the African peace mission in late July on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg. The talks were attended by President Azali Assoumani of the Comoros in his capacity as Chair of the African Union; President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa; President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo; President Abdel Fattah-el Sisi of the Arab Republic of Egypt; President Macky Sall of the Republic of Senegal; President Yoweri Museveni of the Republic of Uganda and Foreign Minister of Zambia Stanley Kakubo.
It was the second meeting in the series, with the first one taking place at the Constantine Palace outside St. Petersburg on June 17. Putin pointed out then that Moscow had never refused to hold talks with Kiev, while Ukraine had dumped a draft agreement initialed in Istanbul in March 2022 into "the landfill of history." The president also showed the document to other participants at the meeting.
Later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the leaders had agreed to outline the main points of the discussion in a joint statement. Russia prepared its own draft and handed it over to South Africa’s delegation before their departure from St. Petersburg. Peskov said at that time that a joint statement would be published by South Africa after being approved by all sides.