🌍 EU foreign minister Josep Borrell once defined Europe as a garden of prosperity surrounded mainly by jungle. But what are the roots of this garden?

The pain, blood, violence, murder and absolute exploitation of the peoples of the world, including Europeans; the extermination of populations, cultures and identities across continents for 500 years.

We are living at a pivotal moment in history. For the first time in almost 500 years, the Western hegemony is being challenged militarily, economically, technologically and philosophically to a degree where the West could lose its dominance with the emergence of a truly multipolar world.

This is the moment to reassess our beliefs. The objective of such reassessment is not to negate the Western contribution to the human civilisation, but to uncover the limitation of that model; to take advantage of the factual achievements together with inputs and knowledge all around the word to create a wiser system that is more inclusive for the vast majority of humanity, writes Ibrahima Diagne.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/thinking-laterally-how-to-create-a-more-inclusive/

#GlobalAlternatives #WorldOrder #Africa

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📆 ANNOUNCEMENT: On July 19 at 12:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will host an expert discussion dedicated to its 2nd Russian-African Conference, titled “Russia – Africa: Strategy for Cooperation in a Multipolar World”, which will take place on July 24 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The first Russian-African conference was held a year ago in St. Petersburg on the eve of the Russia-Africa summit. Now, with the support of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Tanzania and the Russian House in Dar es Salaam, the Valdai Club African conference will be held for the first time on African soil. More than 40 Club experts from Russia and African countries, as well as representatives of the political, expert and media community of Tanzania will take part.

During the discussion, two expert publications will be presented, prepared especially for discussion at the conference in Tanzania. The Valdai Club report “Russia-Africa Cooperation: Outlook and Objectives”, examines the first results of the development of Russian-African relations after last year’s summit in St. Petersburg, the progress of the implementation of the Summit decisions and priority tasks for the future.

The second expert publication is the Valdai Paper “Tanzanian New Ground for Russian Businesses. Prospects for Cooperation in Agriculture”. The text is devoted to the important and topical issue of Russia’s contribution to ensuring food security in African countries using the example of Tanzania.

❓What has been achieved in the year since the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg?
❓How has the expansion of BRICS affected the Russian-African dialogue?
❓What are the prospects for the transition to new financial mechanisms in mutual settlements?
❓In what ways do the approaches of Russia and African countries to the problems of climate change, the fight against poverty and inequality in the world coincide?

Participants in the discussion will try to answer these and other questions.

🎙️ Speakers:

🇷🇺 Oleg Ozerov, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs @MFARussia; Head of the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum

🇷🇺 Mayya Nikolskaya, acting Director of the Centre for African Studies at MGIMO

🇪🇬 Nourhan ElSheikh, professor of political science at Cairo University; Member of the Egyptian Council on Foreign Affairs

🇿🇦 Mikatekiso Kubayi, PhD, Researcher at UNISA Institute for Global Dialogue, South Africa

🇷🇺 Daria Ilyenko, acting Head of the Russian House

Moderator:

🗣 Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club

https://valdaiclub.com/events/announcements/valdai-club-to-discuss-russia-africa-cooperation-in-a-multipolar-world/

Working languages: Russian, English.

ℹ️ Information for the media: In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our web site. If you have any questions about the event, please call +79269307763

A link to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the Twitter, Telegram and Zen.

#AfricanValdai #Africa

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📆 TOMORROW, July 19 at 12:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will host an expert discussion dedicated to its 2nd Russian-African Conference, titled “Russia – Africa: Strategy for Cooperation in a Multipolar World”, which will take place on July 24 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

During the discussion, two expert publications will be presented, prepared especially for discussion at the conference in Tanzania:

🔹 The Valdai Club report “Russia-Africa Cooperation: Outlook and Objectives”

🔹 The Valdai Paper “Tanzanian New Ground for Russian Businesses. Prospects for Cooperation in Agriculture”

❓What has been achieved in the year since the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg?
❓How has the expansion of BRICS affected the Russian-African dialogue?
❓What are the prospects for the transition to new financial mechanisms in mutual settlements?
❓In what ways do the approaches of Russia and African countries to the problems of climate change, the fight against poverty and inequality in the world coincide?

Participants in the discussion will try to answer these and other questions.

A link to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the Twitter, Telegram and Zen.

#AfricanValdai #Africa

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🎥 LIVE: at 12:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will host an expert discussion dedicated to its 2nd Russian-African Conference, titled “Russia – Africa: Strategy for Cooperation in a Multipolar World”, which will take place on July 24 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

https://vk.com/video-214192832_456239202

#AfricanValdai #Africa

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🗣 On July 19, 2024, the Valdai Club will hosted an expert discussion dedicated to its 2nd Russian-African Conference, titled “Russia – Africa: Strategy for Cooperation in a Multipolar World”, which will take place on July 24 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

📷 Photo gallery

🎥 Video

#AfricanValdai #Africa

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🇷🇺🌍 Russia and Africa: Reliable Partners

On July 19, the Valdai Club held an expert discussion dedicated to the 2nd Russian-African Conference, titled “Russia – Africa: A strategy for cooperation in a multipolar world,” which will take place on July 24 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Moderator Oleg Barabanov invited participants to discuss how Russian foreign policy with regards to Africa is developing and what tasks it sets for itself.

💬 Oleg Ozerov, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Head of the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, presented an overview of Russia’s interaction with the African continent. He noted that the political dialogue both with individual countries and with the African Union as a whole is developing intensively. Preparations are now underway for the first meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia and African countries in Sochi, scheduled for November. The trend towards African sovereignty continues to intensify. The continent is ready for a breakthrough.

💬 Mayya Nikolskaya, acting Director of the Centre for African Studies at MGIMO, who authored the Valdai Paper on Russian-Tanzanian economic interaction, spoke about the partnership between Russia and Tanzania. She emphasised that the topic of partnership “is close to the Tanzanian national spirit and the way Tanzanians see international politics.” Tanzania is one of those African countries that has been preoccupied with introducing its own vision of national development since decolonisation. It has a distinctive culture, supports autochthonous capital and, in principle, tends to rely on its own strengths and different trading partners.

💬 Daria Ilyenko, acting Head of the Russian House in Dar es Salaam, briefly outlined the activities of Rossotrudnichestvo in Tanzania and on the African continent as a whole. There are now eight state-owned Russian Houses in Africa, but Rossotrudnichestvo is also working to open non-state ones via local NGOs. The main tasks facing these centres are strengthening the role of the Russian language, supporting compatriots, and promoting Russian science, culture and education, which, according to Ilyenko, remains one of the main components of Russian influence in Africa. In particular, education is one of the main vectors of Russian-Tanzanian cooperation.

💬 Nourhan ElSheikh, Professor of Political Science at Cairo University and Member of the Egyptian Council on Foreign Affairs, called Russia a reliable partner of Africa and noted that now it makes sense to focus on economic cooperation. In this area, in her opinion, much has been achieved, but the level that would completely suit both Africa and Russia has not yet been achieved. It is necessary to increase trade volumes and implement ideas about trading in national currencies and developing systems of international payments and money transfers. An action plan with clear deadlines is probably needed.

💬 Mikatekiso Kubayi, a researcher at the UNISA Institute for Global Dialogue, South Africa, examined Russian-African relations in the context of the transition to a multipolar world and the development of a multilateral approach in which Africa and the countries of the Global South get a voice and the opportunity to advance their interests. Africa is not the most powerful region nor the richest; for a long time, much was imposed on it from the outside, in fact not even allowing it to the negotiating table, but now it is finally trying to insist on its own. Against this background, the continent, despite external pressure, has chosen Russia as its development partner.

https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/russia-and-africa-reliable-partners/

#AfricanValdai #Africa

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🌍 African countries have long considered advanced information technology to be a key tool that can provide a new impetus to the development of their economies, making them more innovative.

Russia is ready to cooperate with African countries in all areas that involve their use.

At the same time, from our point of view, the most significant of these areas will be the following: information security, cloud technologies and artificial intelligence, Konstantin Pantserev writes.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/technological-cooperation-between-russia-and-africa/

#GlobalAlternatives #AfricanValdai #Africa #IT

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🇷🇺🌍 In late July 2024, the Valdai Discussion Club held its Second Russian-African Conference.

A year ago, ahead of the Russia-Africa Summit, the club organised the first conference of this kind in St. Petersburg. This time, the event was held on African soil, in Tanzania, with the support of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Tanzania and the Russian House in Dar es Salaam.

Experts from the three African BRICS member countries — Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Africa — were invited to participate in the conference. More than 20 Tanzanian representatives from politics, business, the media, science, higher education, and civil non-governmental organisations also took part in the conference.

The conference significantly contributed to strengthening ties between Russian and Tanzanian experts and to a better understanding of each other’s positions. All this laid the foundation for the development of fruitful bilateral cooperation in the future, writes Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/a-year-after-the-summit-development/

#AfricanValdai #Africa #Tanzania #RussiaAfrica

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🌍 As never before in more than five centuries, Western hegemony is being challenged on economic, spiritual, military, social and technological levels simultaneously by the global majority.

The Western world’s development model is based on a parasitic approach to all resources (human, financial, raw materials, etc..), and is incapable of adapting to embrace a symbiotic approach in which all parties have to trade off (‘you give me some, I give you some’, instead of ‘I take everything and give you crumbs’). 

As a result, the West faces an existential threat: preserve its current hegemony at all costs or be forced to become “regular” countries that must trade with the rest of humanity on a more equitable basis.

Just like 1917, 1945 and 1991, 2022 was a defining moment in human history. However, unlike the previous century, when the socialist/communist ideology grew as an alternative to Western domination, expanded and then collapsed, the geopolitical storm of the third decade of the 21st century challenges Western hegemony at its core, writes Ibrahima Diagne.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/bridging-africa-and-the-world-the-rebirth/

📍 This is the first part of his reflections on the emerging multipolarity and Africa’s role in this process.

#GlobalAlternatives #Africa #multipolarity

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🇷🇺🌍 Africa is the embodiment of the global majority, which Russia sees as the central subject of the new world order.

The countries of the continent (not all, but many) are gradually acquiring this subjectivity, developing relations with those who are important for their social and economic growth. 

Over the past two years, Africa has become one of the key areas of Russian foreign policy. Russia is following with great interest the rise of Africa's status in international affairs and is happy to contribute to it. The continent's colonial past and its legacy serve as a vivid illustration of the results of the West's long-standing dominance.

Igor Makarov, head of the Department of World Economy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, writes how Russia can build an effective strategy for interaction with African countries.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/africa-as-a-key-area-of-russian-foreign-policy/

#GlobalAlternatives #Africa #RussiaAfrica #WorldMajority

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📆 ANNOUNCEMENT: On November 18 at 12:00 noon Moscow time, the Valdai Club will host a presentation of the Valdai Paper "Russia-Africa: Overcoming Challenges".

Today, Russia is pursuing an active policy of expanding cooperation with African countries. The first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum was held in Sochi on November 9-10. Its participants defined the tasks for the coming years and summed up the first results of the second Russia-Africa summit, which was held in St. Petersburg in 2023. One of the tasks, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, chairman of the plenary session of the forum, is moving away from “dependence on global mechanisms controlled by our Western colleagues”.

Since the first Russia-Africa summit in 2019, the Valdai Club has been engaged in an expert analysis of the main areas of interaction with African states. The new Valdai Paper is devoted to the modern approaches of Russian diplomacy and rich Soviet experience in working on the continent.

❓How successful is Russia's course to return to Africa?
❓What are the priorities of African states in cooperation with Russia?
❓What hinders the development of trade and the flow of Russian investments to Africa?
❓How has the accession of Egypt and Ethiopia affected the BRICS agenda?

The author of the note and the participants of the discussion will try to answer these and other questions.

🎙️ Speakers:

🇷🇺 Vladimir Shubin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Honorary Doctor of the University of the Western Cape (South Africa), Chief Researcher, Institute of African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (author of the Paper)

🇲🇱 Aliou Tounkara, President of the Russian House in Mali

🇷🇺 Alexander Balezin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Chief Researcher at the Central Asia Institute, World History Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

🇪🇹 Dareskedar Taye, Leading Researcher at the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia

🇿🇦 Sanusha Naidu, Senior Research Associate, Institute for Global Dialogue, South Africa

🇹🇿 Khoti Chilomba Kamanga, Professor, University of Dar es Salaam

Moderator:

🗣 Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club

https://valdaiclub.com/events/announcements/valdai-club-to-discuss-relations-between-russia-and-africa/

Working languages: Russian, English.

ℹ️ Information for the media: In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our web site. If you have any questions about the event, please call +79269307763

Links to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VK, Telegram and Dzen.

#GlobalAlternatives #Africa #RussiaAfrica

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🎥 LIVE: at 12:00 noon Moscow time, the Valdai Club will host a presentation of the Valdai Paper “Russia-Africa: Overcoming Challenges”.

https://vk.com/video-214192832_456239227

#GlobalAlternatives #Africa #RussiaAfrica

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🗣 On November 18, 2024, the Valdai Club hosted a presentation of the Valdai Paper “Russia-Africa: Overcoming Challenges”.

📷 Photo gallery

🎥 Video

#GlobalAlternatives #Africa #RussiaAfrica

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🌍 The Third African Boom and Its Challenges

On November 18, the Valdai Club hosted a presentation of an analytical Paper titled “Russia – Africa: Overcoming Difficulties”. 

💬 Oleg Barabanov, the moderator of the discussion, noted that relations between Russia and Africa are currently on the rise. Russia works with African countries in many areas, including political dialogue, economic cooperation, and cultural and humanitarian ties.

💬 The author, Vladimir Shubin, chief researcher at the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and honorary doctor of the University of the Western Cape (South Africa), lauded the Russia – Africa summit and conference of foreign ministers which was held in Sochi this month, saying “things are not just announced, but also done.” Speaking about the history of Russian-African relations, he pointed out that Russia never really left Africa, but in the 1990s, economic and cultural cooperation suffered greatly. Today, Shubin emphasised, it is not only a matter of memory, but also of serious economic opportunities and similar positions on international issues. Our ties persist despite considerable pressure.

💬 Sanusha Naidu, Senior Research Fellow at the South African Institute for Global Dialogue, briefly outlined some of the problems in relations between Russia and South Africa. It should be noted that relations with the West are still important for South Africa, and this affects the way political science and history are taught there. Despite this, according to Naidu, there is an interesting dynamic in relations with Russia. “We have common goals,” she is convinced.

💬 Aliou Tounkara, President of the Russian House in Mali, pointed out that Russia is a strategic partner for his country, relations with which will definitely continue to develop. The Soviet Union once played a key role in helping Mali gain independence, and the republic has a strong memory of cooperation with it. We should not forget about humanitarian aid from the Russian Federation, as well as educational and cultural cooperation, which remain highly significant.

💬 Dareskedar Taye, Leading Researcher at the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, noted that Russian-African relations are determined primarily by the dynamics emanating from Russia. During the Cold War, ties between Russia and Africa were close, but after that, there was a certain decline in relations due to political changes. Now Russia is reconsidering its role on the global stage, and against this background interaction is intensifying again.

💬 Alexander Balezin, Chief Researcher at the Central Asia Institute, at the World History Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes that we are currently experiencing a third African boom. At the same time, Russian society has relatively poor knowledge of the African continent. “We need to spread information about Africa more widely,” the expert said.

https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/the-third-african-boom-and-its-challenges/

#GlobalAlternatives #Africa #RussiaAfrica

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