According to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, leaders of state or governments will represent about half of the nations.
The Russia-Africa summit, which is scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg next week, has received participation confirmations from 49 nations, according to Aleksandr Polyakov, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Africa section, who made the announcement on Tuesday.
The choice to take part, according to Polyakov, shows that African countries are steadfastly committed to establishing relations with Moscow despite pressure from the West.
Approximately half of the African countries will be represented at the highest level: the level of heads of state and government, according to the 49 African delegations that have confirmed their participation so far, he informed the media.
The second Russia-Africa Summit is slated for July 27–28 and will coincide with the Economic and Humanitarian Forum, which will likely serve as a venue for panel discussions and commercial meetings.
‘For peace, security, and development’ served as the topic of the inaugural high-level gathering, which took place in Sochi in 2019. There were around 50 African heads of state present.
The event’s final preparations, according to Polyakov, were in the process of being put together, and a calendar of meetings featuring President Vladimir Putin was being created.
“Bilateral and multilateral documents of our cooperation with Africans are being prepared for signing,” the ambassador said.
The event, according to Mikhail Bogdanov, deputy foreign minister of Russia, is a “serious first step” towards Moscow’s “economic and political return to Africa.”
Although the identities of the nations attending the summit have not been made public, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced his attendance in March.
According to a representative for the Pretoria embassy in Moscow, the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has also accepted Putin’s invitation to the meeting, TASS reported last week.
An African peace plan to end the war in Ukraine will be addressed on the sidelines of the summit, according to the Kremlin.
