🇷🇺🌍 What African strategy for Russia?

Russia’s current heightened interest in Africa does not come out of nowhere. This was the case in 2019, and even more so.

Over the past two years, many global summits and ministerial meetings have been held involving the continent, including US-Africa, EU-Africa, China-Africa, Turkey-Africa, and Japan-Africa. At each of them, large-scale economic and civil projects were offered to the countries of the continent. Naturally, experience shows that not everything that was announced at the summits is being implemented. This is also discussed in detail in our report.

We see a real increase in global competition for Africa, a kind of ‘race of billions’ in cooperation programmes with it. This, by the way, gives the African countries themselves the opportunity to choose, writes Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/what-african-strategy-for-russia/

📍 On July 25, 2023, St. Petersburg will host the Russian-African Conference of the Valdai Club, titled “Russia and African Countries: Established Traditions of Interaction and Prospects for Cooperation in a New World”.

ℹ️ Dear journalists! Accreditation will end on July 24 at 17:00 Moscow time (GMT+3).

📌 Programme of the Conference

#Norms_and_Values #AfricanValdai #Africa #RussiaAfricaSummit

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🇲🇿🇷🇺 Africans in general compare Russia to China, i.e., a partner focused on the so-called extractive economy.

It takes everything raw, wins money, transforms nothing, and pays bribes to keep business. There is no consistent Russian presence in general, for instance among the final consumer goods and services segment.

What could be done? Perhaps a more assiduous participation in African commercial, agricultural and technology fairs to make themselves known to the local business community, who mostly prefer to relate to the European Union, as they studied there and/or have their savings/credit lines in banks in Europe and the USA.

In response to the Valdai Club report “Russia and Africa: An Audit of Relations” released in the run-up to the Club’s African Conference, Ricardo Santos from Mozambique discusses shortcomings in the interaction between Russia and the African countries and identifies ways to overcome them.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/russia-and-africa-discerning-details/

📌 Programme of the Conference

#AfricanValdai #RussiaAfricaSummit #Mozambique

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🗣 Good morning! Today at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time the Russian-African Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club “Russia and African Countries: Established Traditions of Interaction and Prospects for Cooperation in a New World” will start.

The Valdai Club Conference will actually become the final synchronisation of watches at the expert level in the run-up to the Russia-Africa Summit.

10:00–10:15 — Opening of the Conference (live broadcast: in Russian, in English, in French)

10:15–11:45 — Session 1. Political Dialogue of Russia and African Countries: Mutual Understanding in a Turbulent World (live broadcast: in Russian, in English, in French)

12:15–13:45 — Session 2. Economic Relations: Three Years’ Audit After the First Russia-Africa Summit

14:45–16:15 — Session 3. Culture, Education and Human Dimension: How to Bring Russia and Africa Closer to Each Other?

16:30–18:30 — Session 4. The Soviet Legacy in Africa: From the Past Into the Future (live broadcast: in Russian, in English, in French)

📌 Programme of the Conference

Links to the live broadcasts of the open sessions in English, French and Russian will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, Twitter, Telegram and Dzen.

#AfricanValdai #valdai_programme #RussiaAfricaSummit

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🌍 Attention of major players in the world economy toward the future of the African continent has increased in recent decades.

The reason for the new “scramble for Africa” lies in the significant potential for economic growth, the rich resource base and the growing consumer market of the continent.

Despite the problems of socio-economic nature and political instability in a number of countries, Africa has the potential to become one of the main centres of growth for the world economy.

Russia and the African continent are natural trade and economic partners. Russia strives to listen to the needs of Africans, building relationships on the principle of “development not at the expense of, but together with Africa.”

We hope that the 2nd Summit, as well as the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum (St. Petersburg, July 26-29, 2023) will give a new impetus to Russian-African cooperation, writes Pavel Kalmychek, Director of the Department for Bipartite Cooperation Development, Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/russia-and-africa-a-natural-partnership/

#AfricanValdai #Norms_and_Values #RussiaAfricaSummit

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🇷🇺🌍 It is in our hands to improve, expand, and consolidate Russia-Africa Relations.

The five foundations of historical, political, economic, scientific and academic, and security offer us a good-enough pathway towards our common and shared futures, writes Rasigan Maharajh in the run-up to the Russia-Africa conference of the Valdai Club.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/russia-and-africa-working-together/

#AfricanValdai #Norms_and_Values #RussiaAfricaSummit

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🇷🇺🌍 Russia-Africa: Two Halves of the Planet’s Heart

❓Is it possible to conduct a political dialogue amid the wholesale reformatting of the global space?
❓What is a natural partnership?
❓How are Russia-Africa economic relations progressing?
❓What is the fireproof safety net in Russia-Africa relations?
❓Is it possible to transform the Soviet legacy into real policies?

These issues were discussed by the participants in the Valdai Club Russia-Africa Conference held in St Petersburg on July 25, on the eve of the second Russia-Africa Summit.

The Valdai conference entitled “Russia and African Countries: Established Traditions of Interaction and Prospects for Cooperation in a New World” included four thematic sessions, two of which were open to the public.

We will tell our audience about them in brief and in the right order: https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/russia-africa-two-halves-of-the-planet-s-heart/

#AfricanValdai #RussiaAfricaSummit #RussiaAfrica

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🇷🇺🌍 While the Russia -Africa summit is not unique in the sense that other countries have also found it meaningful to interact with African heads of states in one forum (examples include the China-Africa summit, US-Africa summit, India-Africa summit, Japan-Africa summit and Turkey-Africa summit), what is unique about the recently concluded summit in St. Petersburg is the diversity in the nature of participants, issues and thematic areas that were addressed. 

There has been a growing number of summit diplomacy critics who view the events from a post-colonial lens and argue that African leaders should not gather to meet other heads of state because they are equally heads of states themselves. While this argument is simplistic and populist to an extent, it does offer an opportunity for African leaders to think of the possibilities of hosting other heads of state. This can serve as an opportunity for them to also showcase opportunities and a development agenda that can be implemented through cooperation with other countries. That, however, is not the only lesson that the summit in St. Petersburg offers.

1️⃣ For one, it shows that Africa can leverage its numbers to become a formidable agency at the international level, something individual countries are not likely to have. The collective strength of African states is consistent with Pan-Africanism and could be the vehicle by which the continent raises its issues to a level of priority.

2️⃣ Secondly, summit diplomacy should not be confused as an attempt to dilute or even get rid of bilateral relations. Indeed, during the Russia-Africa Summit, many bilateral agreements took place not only between Russia and an African state but also among African states themselves. Thus, such platforms should be seen as an effective opportunity to strengthen bilateral relations while looking at the bigger picture.

Furthermore, summit diplomacies can offer African countries a channel to explore different avenues of engagement by listening to the proposals on the table during one summit to another and strengthen cooperation with those that offer better terms of cooperation. The Second Russia -Africa summit did have numerous opportunities regarding this direction, even though some of these benefits were overshadowed by information warfare, writes Israel Nyaburi Nyadera.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/the-second-russia-africa-summit-lessons-beyond/

#Norms_and_Values #AfricanValdai #RussiaAfricaSummit

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🇷🇺🌏 “Russia is returning to Africa” — this phrase is usually used by those who talk about our country’s activities on this continent.

But this phrase is incorrect: Russia, the heir of the Soviet Union, never left Africa.

Given that the adoption of the decisions of the Second Russia-Africa Summit was accompanied by the development of a mechanism for their implementation, and in light of the high professional level of the leaders and employees of the Russian Foreign Ministry who were called upon to coordinate it, there is every reason to believe that these decisions will be implemented, and that Russia’s cooperation with African countries in many areas will yield new prospects, writes Vladimir Shubin.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/is-russia-returning-to-africa/

#Norms_and_Values #Africa #RussiaAfrica #RussiaAfricaSummit

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