#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.

#RussiaAfrica

🇷🇺🌍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

President of Russia Vladimir Putin opened the First Plenary Session of the 2nd #RussiaAfrica Summit

🇷🇺🤝🌍

💬 Dear friends,

We continue our work.
We are opening the First Plenary Session of the Russia - Africa Summit.

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This shows our mutual intention to strengthen cooperation in all areas, bolster honest, transparent and constructive partnership.

🎙 Russia’s President Vladimir Putin's answers to journalists’ questions following the Second #RussiaAfrica Summit

Key points

• The [Summit] atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly in every sense of the word. These people want to work with us. As for us, we must do everything to move in this direction, and this is what we will do.

• We have done a lot of good and useful things for Africa. When we contact African leaders and they say as much, we always have a feeling that we are good people. This is true in this case and it is very good.

• There is a lot of demand for working together on security matters. Africa still suffers from terrorism. This is a challenge for many regions and countries there. We know all too well that stability at home is a must in order to promote economic development, while there can be no stability without security. It is for this reason that they want to continue working with us and are sincere about it. This includes military-technical cooperation. Outside pressure has done nothing to scare them away.

• The African continent is extremely friendly and positive towards us. This is an important foundation we can use to build business relations as well.

#Ukraine

• Just like any peace initiative, this initiative is helpful because it is focused on finding a peaceful solution to the conflict. There are certain provisions of this peace initiative that are being implemented after our meeting in St Petersburg six weeks ago.

• You know this, I constantly speak about this. We have never rejected peace talks.

☝️ The conversation in general was long and constructive. I think we spoke for almost two hours. Every participant had a chance to share their opinion on the matter. I want to stress once again: we spoke from the position of friendship, trying to find realistic ways and opportunities to lower the tensions.

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🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, August 2, 2023)

🔷 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔷 #RussiaAfrica Summit
🔷 Ukrainian crisis
🔷 Kiev regime’s crimes and use of terrorist methods
🔷 Actions against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
🔷 Developments in Niger
🔷 New evidence of militarist Japan’s crimes

And more...

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#Ukraine

Сriminal activity involving the open use of terrorist methods has long become routine for the Kiev regime. Its representatives are no longer afraid to admit this openly, assuming responsibility for attacks on civilian facilities and acts of terrorism against civilians.

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Western countries are not only verbally encouraging the terrorist methods of the Kiev regime, but are also directly involved in the organisation of terrorist acts by supplying weapons and passing on the necessary intelligence.

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With the Ukraine conflict moving into a more intensive phase, we are witnessing major violations of the OSCE Document on Small Arms and Light Weapons by the United States (2000) and the Principles Governing Conventional Arms Transfers (1993). By supplying all these weapons to the neo-Nazis in Kiev, the West encourages human rights violations by the receiving state, escalates the armed confrontation and becomes an accomplice in the war crimes perpetrated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against civilians.

🎙 Statement by Aleksandr Pankin, deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, at the #G20 Development Ministerial Meeting on “Fighting Inequalities” (Rio de Janeiro, July 23, 2024)

💬 In recent decades, we have seen tangible progress in reducing inequality levels in certain areas. Last year, for example, the #BRICS countries were well ahead of the G7 in terms of global GDP share (35 percent against 30 percent, respectively). Still, additional steps are needed to remedy the situation. The creation of the G20 has greatly contributed to the democratization of global governance. The African Union's recent joining the G20 as a new member has been another significant achievement.

Other positive developments are also taking place. Today, the G20 is increasingly relying on universal mechanisms, such as the UN, rather than on behind-the-scenes West-driven arrangements, standards and club formats. This is how, for example, work on the thematic tracks on Tax Cooperation and Combatting Corruption is being carried out.

Russia has been consistently gaining ground in the global economic system. According to the World Bank, we have ranked among the top five largest economies, become a high-income country and one of the ten most profitable exporters. We are continuously improving the Russian manufacturing sector. We are enhancing our technological sovereignty, increasing the output of high value added products, and developing unique professional competencies.

We guarantee a reliable supply of energy, food and fertilizers to foreign consumers and offer them digital services, programmes and engineering solutions that are unaffected by political fluctuations. We intend to expand the range of supplies of knowledge-intensive and complex goods.

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Strengthening the production capacities and human resources of developing countries and increasing gains is of crucial importance. This would allow to put an end to the situation, when, according to the Africans themselves, for ages the continent has been supplying raw materials and agricultural stuff to the West, which has been profiting from it. A vivid example by one African leader: Africa gets less than 6 percent of the USD 46 billion from global sales of African grown coffee.

It is high time to put an end to these neo-colonial practices. We should focus efforts on strengthening the industrial sector of the Global South and East, increasing the funding of their healthcare and education, digitalization, and expanding university and student exchanges. We have actively advocated these ideas within BRICS partners as well as in the #RussiaAfrica format. Developed countries, according to their own pledges, are expected to allocate at least 0.7 percent of GDP to development assistance, which has been stagnating.

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Geopolitical games played by the West may lead to an irreparable fragmentation of the world economy and further fuel inequality. Our societies will thus be doomed to utter impoverishment and radicalization. The G20 can and must put a firm stop to that, bringing us back on the path of multilateralism. The key to our success is to reaffirm adherence to the UN Charter, international law and mutually beneficial cooperation.

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