Second Russia-Africa Summit Ends With Commitments Toward Cooperation Across Key Sectors

The second Russia-Africa Summit for Peace, Security, and Development concluded in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on July 28. The two-day summit was attended by official delegations from 49 African countries and included 17 heads of state. The summit yielded various agreements and a joint declaration for cooperation on issues including security, trade, energy, and climate change.

Speaking to Peoples Dispatch during the course of the summit, activist and analyst Kambale Musavuli said, “[T]he message that people should read is that Africa is at the center of the change of the world, Africans are taking agency that did not exist before when we had the Berlin Conference.”

The meeting was held following the expiration of an agreement allowing the export of grain from Ukraine via the Black Sea. Addressing the summit’s plenary, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that of the 32.8 million metric tons of cargo that had been exported from Ukraine under this agreement, over 70 percent had gone to “high and above-average income countries, primarily to the European Union.” Meanwhile, countries including Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan had received less than 3 percent of these exports.

Putin announced that Russia would be ready to supply between 25,000 and 50,000 metric tons of grain for free to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic, and Eritrea within the next three to four months. He also said that matters related to agricultural production on the African continent, including support in the form of transfer of technology, had been discussed.