🇷🇺🇪🇹 President Vladimir Putin held talks with Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed at the Constantine Palace.

💬 Vladimir Putin: I am delighted to welcome you in St Petersburg. I would like to begin by saying that we highly value the long-standing friendly ties between Russia and Ethiopia based as they are on the principles of mutual respect and taking into consideration each other’s interests.

For Russia, Ethiopia was the first country on the African continent with which Russia established diplomatic relations. This happened 125 years ago. We marked this anniversary recently.

I would like to thank you, Mr Prime Minister and your team, for accepting our proposal and deciding to come here to attend the Second #RussiaAfrica Summit.

📑 In time for your visit, we drafted an entire package of documents, including intergovernmental agreements on information security and air travel; a memorandum of understanding concerning information and communication technologies; a nuclear energy cooperation road map and a protocol of cooperation betweencustoms services. We are working together on more than 15 other intergovernmental agreements and inter-agency projects.

We continue to train professionals for our friends in Ethiopia. More than 20,000 Ethiopian citizens have completed study programmes in Russia in the past years. At the request of our Ethiopian friends, we increased the quota of your students sponsored by the Russian federal budget more than three times for the 2023–2024 academic year.

🤝 We maintain a regular political dialogue, with close interaction between our foreign ministers. Russia and Ethiopia share similar positions on many topical issues of the global agenda.

#RussiaAfrica

🇷🇺🌍 President Vladimir Putin held a trilateral meeting with Chairperson of the African Union and President of the Union of the Comoros Azali Assoumani and Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat at the Expoforum Centre.

📍 Saint Petersburg, July 27, 2023

Key talking points:

• We view the African Union as a leading regional organisation that shapes the modern security structure on the continent and paves the way for Africa to take its rightful place in the system of global economic links.

• We support the Union’s involvement in the work of leading international associations. I would like to remind you that Russia was one of the first to react positively to the initiative advanced by the President of Senegal, who preceded you in this position, for granting the African Union full membership in the G20.

• As before, Russia is ready to help strengthen African countries’ sovereignty and contribute to Africa becoming a key partner in the new system of the multipolar world order.

• Our mutual trade reached approximately 18 billion US dollars in 2022 and increased by nearly 35 percent in the first six months of 2023.

• Russia remains a reliable food supplier for Africa. In 2022, Russian food exports amounted to 4.7 billion US dollars. Many large Russian companies are successfully working in Africa. The key spheres of our cooperation include energy, subsoil use, agriculture.

🇷🇺🇰🇲 We highly value our relations with the Union of the Comoros. They are based on the principles of mutual respect and a balance of each other’s interests and have a development potential in a number of spheres. Of course, we are open to cooperation with your country in all areas.

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🇷🇺🌍President Vladimir Putin's remarks in the Plenary Session of the Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum.

📍 Saint Petersburg, July 27, 2023

Key talking points:

• Africa’s potential is obvious to everyone. For example, the average annual GDP growth on the continent in the past 20 years was 4–4.5 percent, which exceeds the world’s average. Africa’s population is approaching 1.5 billion and is growing faster than anywhere else in the world.

• Russia’s government, business and the public are sincerely interested in further deepening multifaceted trade, investment and humanitarian ties with the continent, which meets the needs of all our countries and promotes stable growth and prosperity.

• Russia-Africa trade reached 18 billion US dollars last year. It is an obvious result of the Russia–Africa Summit held in Sochi.

• We have always given and will continue to give special attention to supplying wheat, barley, corn and other grain crops to our African friends, including as part of humanitarian aid provided under the UN World Food Programme.

• Last year Russia’s trade with African countries in agricultural products increased by 10 percent to $6.7 billion, and has already demonstrated record growth in January-June of this year by increasing by 60 percent.

⚡️We are witnessing a paradox. On the one hand, the West seeks to block our grain and fertiliser exports, while accusing us of the current crisis on the global food market. This is outright hypocrisy. We saw this approach in all clarity with the so-called grain deal. Brokered with the participation of the UN Secretariat, it was initially designed to promote global food security, mitigate the threat of hunger and help the poorest countries, including in Africa.

• Russia’s share of the world wheat market is 20 percent, Ukraine's is less than five per cent. This means that it is Russia that makes a significant contribution to global food security and is a solid, responsible international supplier of agricultural products.

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🇷🇺🇲🇿 President Vladimir Putin met with President of the Republic of Mozambique Filipe Jacinto Nyusi on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit.

📍 Saint Petersburg, July 27, 2023

💬 Vladimir Putin: Russia and Mozambique are bound by strong links of friendship and cooperation that took shape during the times when the people of Mozambique fought for their independence. We established our diplomatic relations in 1975.

Mr President, we value and share your ambition to strengthen the multidimensional ties between our nations.

Russia and Mozambique are advancing their political dialogue.

The Russian and Mozambican parliaments maintain active contacts and exchange visits.

The trade between our countries grew by 14.5 percent in 2022. In January-April 2023, the positive dynamics persisted, with 35-percent growth. We have noted good prospects in gas production, geological exploration, electricity generation, agriculture and fishing.

We are expanding the legal framework of our bilateral cooperation. Documents on intellectual property, geological projects, fishing and innovation will be signed on the sidelines of this summit.

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🇷🇺🌍 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s video address to participants in the second Russia-Africa Media Forum of top managers of Russian leading news agencies (July 27, 2023)

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💬 Relations between the Russian Federation and African states are on the upswing, which is in the fundamental interests of both sides. Russia-Africa cooperation rests on the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs. We are particularly glad to note the ongoing expansion of contacts between people. It is promoting the sympathy our people developed for each other during the period of decolonisation.

It is hard to overestimate the role of the media, primarily news agencies, in the further strengthening of friendship, trust and understanding. Now our priority goal is to expand Russia’s media presence in Africa and the African media presence in Russia. One of the aims is to overcome finally the negative stereotypes imposed by the collective West.

<…>

It is important to fully harness the potential of modern information technology – social media, the blogosphere, and digital services and platforms.

❗️ The West is relentless in its attempts to smear the image of Russia and African states in the media space. Under the circumstances, there is high demand for the initiative, responsible work of journalists, media top managers and new media specialists.

I am convinced that you can create a constructive news agenda that will be based on truth and facts rather than manipulation and invention to which the US and European media are increasingly resorting now.

#RussiaAfrica

🇷🇺🌍 President Vladimir Putin had a working breakfast with the heads of Africa’s regional organisations.

📍 Saint Petersburg, July 27, 2023

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💬 Vladimir Putin: It is for this reason that we decided that it would be important to discuss the prospects of cooperation between the Eurasian Union and Africa’s integration bodies. This primarily refers to the African Union which has been following a similar path with the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

I would like to note that of all the regional organisations, the African Union is Russia’s main partner. We support it in its multifaceted efforts to ensure peace and stability and promote political and economic integration.

Today we will approve a major joint Russia–African Union action plan until 2026. This comprehensive document was drafted pursuant to the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Russian Federation and the African Union Commission on the basic principles of their relations and cooperation. It focuses on intensifying contacts on peace and security and resolving crises.

We believe that the creation of a new permanent dialogue mechanism for consultations on such urgent issues as countering terrorism and extremism and ensuring food, information and environmental security could be a meaningful addition to Russia–African Union instruments of interaction.

🌍 Russia supports the African Union's participation in the G20 as a full member. We talked about this today. We expect that the G20 will reach a decision on this matter, including with our support, at the summit in New Delhi in September. Objectively, this decision would reflect the constantly growing role of the African continent and its leading regional structures in international affairs.

Naturally, we are ready to develop effective interaction with other African regional organisations that are represented at our meeting.

#RussiaAfrica

🇷🇺🇿🇼 President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit.

📍 Saint Petersburg, July 27, 2023

💬 Vladimir Putin: Zimbabwe is Russia’s reliable ally on the African continent. We have established solid, reliable and friendly ties which date back to the time when the people of Zimbabwe fought for their independence.

There is positive momentum in our political dialogue, including in our inter-parliamentary ties.

After a slight decrease in 2022, trade increased severalfold in January-April, not only making up for lost ground but even achieving a higher result. We have good prospects for working together in multiple sectors, as we will be sure to discuss today.

The practice of educating Zimbabwean specialists in Russia has also proven its worth with 1,200 students from Zimbabwe studying at Russian universities. We increased the number of government grants for the 2023–2024 academic year from 80 to 125.

🤝 Russia and Zimbabwe have common or close views on most current issues on the international agenda. Your country traditionally supports Russia’s foreign political initiatives at the UN and votes for our candidates when it is necessary to fill a position. We very much appreciate this.

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🇷🇺🌍President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at the gala reception hosted in honour of the participants in the second Russia–Africa Summit.

💬Friends, we are happy that heads of state and government and leading politicians and government officials from practically all African countries have arrived in St Petersburg.

Such a representative range of participants gathered in our northern capital, as we call St Petersburg, convincingly illustrates the mutual desire of Russia and African countries to expand and deepen mutually beneficial ties and contacts. This is also a real confirmation of our common intentions to take Russia-Africa relations to a new, more advanced level in politics, security, in the economic and social spheres.

🤝We are convinced that the St Petersburg summit will help us reach this main goal in full measure. We are looking to the future with optimism because Russia-Africa relations rest on the firm foundation of friendship and mutual assistance, an accumulated positive experience of our joint work and a truly rich and eventful history.

At one time, the Soviet Union rendered African nations tangible support in the struggle against colonialism, racism and apartheid, in the development of statehood and in the consolidation and protection of independence. It helped them lay the foundations of their national economies. <...> Russia will continue to expand on these kinds of traditions.

It is equally important to note that today Russia and the African countries stand together for the formation of a just, multipolar world order based on the principles of sovereign equality of states, non-interference in their internal affairs, and respect for peoples' right to determine their own destiny

☝️And, of course, our country will continue to make a real contribution to settling current crises and preventing the emergence of new hotbeds of tension on the continent, fighting terrorism and extremism, pandemics and hunger, and addressing issues of environmental, food and information security

#RussiaAfrica 🇷🇺🤝🌍

#Friendship #Equality #Future