Russia-Africa Summit Began in St-Petersburg

Today, the two-day Russia-Africa summit began in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the presence of several African leaders; the summit is the second of its kind, after an inaugural summit held in 2019 in Sochi, in southern Russia.

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President Vladimir Putin gave the inaugural speech of the summit.

The summit’s business program includes more than 20 sessions and the participants will discuss nuclear and space technologies, logistics routes, higher education, artificial intelligence and financial security, among others.

“In the coming months we will be able to ensure free supplies of 25,000 to 50,000 tonnes of grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea,” Putin said during his speech. 

"I would like to note that last year trade turnover between Russia and Africa reached $18 bln," Putin said, adding that "this is one of the obvious results of the Russia-Africa summit in Sochi," Putin added.

"I am confident that we all can scale up trade more massively in the foreseeable future," he stressed.

Putin also made reference to agriculture during his speech, stating that: "Figures say it all. Last year, trade in agriculture products between Russia and African countries gained 10% to $6.7 bln, whereas in January-June of this year it increased by another record 60%."

Furthermore, Putin also said that Russia is ready to work with African countries on development of their financial infrastructure, on connecting banking institutions to the Russian financial messaging system.

On Tuesday, in an official statement, Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, stated that "almost all African states have been subjected to unprecedented pressure."

However, despite the alleged pressures exerted by the US and EU on African countries to keep away, many African leaders arrived for the conference.

"Today, Africa is asserting itself more confidently as one of the poles of the emerging multipolar world," Putin said ahead of the event.

The first Russia-Africa summit and forum was held in Russia’s Sochi in 2019, with representatives of all 54 countries of the continent, as well as eight major African integrations and organizations, participating in it.