💬 “BRICS is a power providing food security, de-dollarization, UN reforms,” Dr. Nicodemus Minde, social science researcher, comments on the #BRICS
🔈The #BRICS2024 Summit debunks many myths about Russia's perceived isolation, and it also sends a strong message to the West that the world desires and thus is moving towards multipolarity.
🇷🇺 Russia’s president really makes efforts to provide food security on the African continent.
💬"This particular initiative and declaration that has been passed by President Putin and it is an effort towards a more food-secure world, especially in the continent of Africa, which still continues to really rely on grain," he said about Putin's initiative for BRICS Grain Exchange.
❗️De-dollarization is one of the aims of the BRICS, it will enable the members to develop international trade, to surpass sanctions and embargoes placed by the West.
Broader reforms are needed in the UN Security Council. BRICS is pushing for the alternative voice.
#BRICS#RussiaSouthAfrica
🇷🇺🇳🇪📞 President Vladimir Putinspoke over the phone with President of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland of the Republic of Niger Abdourahamane Tchiani, who expressed solidarity with the Russian people and heartfelt condolences over the numerous victims of the heinous terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.
In discussing the bilateral agenda, the Leaders expressed determination to step up political dialogue and develop mutually beneficial cooperation in various spheres.
They also exchanged views on the developments in the Sahel-Sahara region with an emphasis on coordination of security and counterterrorism efforts.
#RussiaAfrica
🗓 On November 9-10, Sochi hosted the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum at Sirius University.
Instituted by a decision of the Second Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg in July 2023, this new dialogue format is called on to become a certain coordinating mechanism for implementing objectives set by the heads of state and government.
Along with heads of foreign ministries and executive structures of integration associations, the event brought together sectoral ministers as well as representatives of parliamentary, public, academic and business circles of Russia and African countries, with over 1,500 people attended the event.
🌐 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov chaired a plenary session, the conference’s high-priority event that involved 54 heads of official delegations from African states and regional integration associations. At the beginning of the plenary session, they read out greetings from the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Chair of the African Union – President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.
The Ministers coordinated their positions on key issues of the international agenda as well as the Russian-African agenda, prioritising the implementation of the Action Plan of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum for 2023-2026. Also, they specified and coordinated long-term guidelines for expanding mutual collaboration still further.
📄 Four joint statements formalised common approaches towards addressing global problems and expanding cooperation with a focus on quality preparations for the Third Russia-Africa Summit:
👉 political statement,
👉 on international information security,
👉 on counter-terrorism measures,
👉 on peaceful use of outer space.
The conference’s packed business programme, including 20 panel sessions and specialised events, provided an additional impetus for diverse mutually beneficial cooperation. Experts and high-ranking guests discussed various high-priority issues in great detail, including food security and collaboration in the agro-industrial sector, training specialists for the real economy, geological prospecting, digitalisation, and cooperation in education, healthcare and youth policy. Representatives of the Eurasian Economic Commission and various African associations discussed mutual integration issues.
Elaborating on the provisions of the Declaration of the Second Russia-Africa Summit, the sides held specialised meetings on international information security, counter-terrorism efforts, and the prevention of an arms race in outer space. Representatives of Russian and African media outlets took part in an event on measures to combat the manifestations of neo-colonialism.
🤝 Sergey Lavrov met separately with a majority of African delegations on the sidelines of the conference.
✍️ The Officials signed an extensive package of memorandums and agreements between Russia and a number of African states.
#RussiaAfrica
🎬 “Africa. Together into the Future” — a festival celebrating cultural exchange between continents — opened in Moscow on October 15 at the legendary Illusion cinema.
🌍 Now in its 3rd edition, the International Film Festival Days of African Culture and Cinema aims to strengthen cultural ties between Russia and African countries, creating a space for dialogue through the universal language of film.
✨ The opening night featured Katanga. Dance of the Scorpions by acclaimed African director Dani Kouyaté and footage from My Africa by Olga Akatyeva, filmed in South Africa.
The program includes seven award-winning films from across the African continent, followed by Q&A sessions with filmmakers. Audiences will also take part in round tables and open discussions with directors, producers and cultural figures from Russia & Africa.
🤝 The festival offers a unique platform to discover modern African cinema, foster creative partnerships, and celebrate the cultural diversity that connects our nations.
#RussiaAfrica
🌍☦️Patriarchal Exarch of Africa Celebrates Service in Moscow
On August 23, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, Metropolitan Constantine of Cairo and North Africa, Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, celebrated the All-Night Vigil at the Church of the Resurrection of the Word in Danilovskaya Sloboda, Moscow, together with African clergy.
At the conclusion of the service, the rector of the church, Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, welcomed the hierarch and presented commemorative gifts. Metropolitan Constantine delivered an archpastoral message and expressed gratitude for the hospitality.
Earlier, the clergy of the Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa visited Orthodox holy sites in Moscow.
📸Metropolitan Constantine, Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, celebrated the All-Night Vigil in Moscow with African clergy.
By: African Initiative
#RussiaAfrica
💬Remarks by Ambassador of Russia to Egypt Georgy Borisenko, at the Inauguration Ceremony of the African Space Agency:
On behalf of the Russia, please allow me to extend heartfelt congratulations to the organizers and participants of the ceremony on the occasion of this truly historic achievement!
▪️Today, Africa is rapidly increasing its involvement in space exploration, successfully advancing towards implementation of the comprehensive space program that would benefit the social, economic, political, and environmental needs of the continent.
▪️As the pioneer in space exploration, Russia proudly carries on traditions of national cosmonautics – we construct new spaceports, rockets and satellites while expanding cooperation with all constructively minded partners.
▪️It is our deepest interest to see Africa joining space exploration efforts, and we are ready to offer comprehensive support.
Russia and Africa have a shared future, and we must ensure that it will be as bright as possible.
#RussiaAfrica
🗓 On June 4, under the chairmanship of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a meeting of the Collegium of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation was held. The topic — “Furthering Russia’s cooperation with Africa.”
The session underscored the priority status of comprehensive relations with the African continent, as well as Russia’s commitment to fostering Africa’s emergence as a distinctive and influential centre of global development, in line with the Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation approved by the President in 2023.
🇷🇺🌍 The Collegium noted the high momentum in #RussiaAfrica relations. A strong impetus to this process was provided by the establishment of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum in 2019 and the successful organisation, within this framework, of two summits and the first ministerial conference. Active efforts are underway to expand Russia’s diplomatic presence in the region. In January of this year, a new department – the Department for Partnership with Africa – was formed within the Russian Foreign Ministry to oversee engagement at both pan-African and subregional levels.
The meeting reaffirmed the Russian Federation’s dedication to assisting the African nations in strengthening their sovereignty and countering the neocolonial policies of the collective West, which seeks to maintain dominance over the continent to serve its narrowly self-serving resource, economic, and geopolitical interests.
The session outlined concrete steps to further enhance Russia’s political, economic, cultural, and other ties with African nations and their integration blocs. Emphasis was placed on Russia’s readiness to continue supporting African partners in overcoming security challenges, guided by the African solutions to African Problems principle.
🤝 Special attention was given to preparations for the second ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, scheduled to take place this year in an African state, which will serve as a key milestone ahead of the third Russia-Africa Summit in 2026.
🌍 African nations are displaying a strong interest in the XIII international Meeting of High Representatives For Security Issues to be held at the "Russia" National Centre in Moscow on May 27−29, 2025.
Forty-five delegations from over 40 countries of Africa, as well as several Africa-based international organisations, including the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, have confirmed their intention to participate in the forum that will be chaired by Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu.
🤝 In a separate briefing to be held on the sidelines of the 13th meeting, participants will discuss ways to further intensify relations between Russia and African countries even further, particularly in light of decisions approved by the Russia-Africa summits.
The Press Service of the Executive Office of the Security Council of Russia:
“Large-scale geopolitical changes have directly affected the interests of states of the Global South and East. We hear an increasingly audible voice of African countries, which seek to conduct their foreign policy in the interests of their people and are ready to defend their right to freely choose their path of development. Russia has always rendered assistance to its African partners in their striving to defend their sovereignty, national interests and legitimate place in the system of international relations.”
#RussiaAfrica
🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’svideo address to participants of the 4th International Youth Forum “Russia - Africa: What’s Next?” and the 1st Russia - Africa Young Diplomats Forum (Moscow, April 23, 2025)
💬Sergey Lavrov: Colleagues, friends,
I am pleased to welcome the participants of the 4th International Forum “Russia - Africa: What’s Next?” which is a platform of high standing for Russian-African youth dialogue. I would like to begin by thanking the leadership of MGIMO, personally Rector Anatoly Torkunov, and everyone else involved in making today’s event, with broad African participation, possible.
🌍 Russian-African friendship and partnership have a long history: in the past century, our country selflessly helped Africans in their courageous struggle for freedom and independence.
Advancing relations with the African countries is among our top priorities, and this approach is enshrined in the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation approved by President Vladimir Putin.
We support the Africans’ push to be active players in international affairs. We will continue to help strengthen the continent’s position as an independent centre of power in the emerging multipolar world order.
Russian-African relations are on the rise. The Russia-Africa summits in 2019 and 2023, as well as the Russia-Africa Ministerial Conference in Sochi in November 2024, were a major milestone.
Practical cooperation in trade and the economy, as well as humanitarian projects, is making great strides.
🤝 In order to provide such a multifaceted field of activity with the necessary resources, the Department for Partnership with Africa was established at the Foreign Ministry which commenced its work in January 2025. Its functions include promoting political, economic, scientific, educational, and cultural ties with the African integration associations.
Russia provides support to African countries in order to strengthen theirpolitical and economic sovereignty.
🎓 Russian institutions of higher education train skilled personnel for African countries. Russia provides a significant number of quotas at the expense of the federal budget. We will continue to help Africans in their quest for advanced technologies.
Together with our African friends, we oppose modern practices of neo-colonialism. We believe it is important to combine our efforts in order to create mechanisms for economic ties and international trade services that are beyond Western control.
Africa is the continent of the future and it’s the youth who are shaping it. This applies fully to foreign policy. Therefore, we are pleased that for the first time the Russia-Africa Forum of Young Diplomats will be held on the sidelines of your event. We welcome this initiative by the Council of Young Diplomats of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Such a meeting fits in well with numerous MGIMO initiatives devoted to Africa, such as Africa in the Focus of Russian Interests, School of Young Africanists on Food Security, as well as Africa Week, and the MGIMO Model African Union.
I am convinced that the Forum participants will contribute to deepening Russian-African strategic cooperation and bringing it to new frontiers.
Friends,
☝️ You will be discussing a wide range of issues, including promising areas of Russia’s relations with the African countries and African integration associations, food security and combatting neo-colonialism, as well as various aspects of cooperation in research, education, media, sports, and other spheres.
I wish you fruitful discussions, the establishment of mutually beneficial contacts, and all the very best.
#RussiaAfrica
🎙Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement at a joint press conference with Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Badr Abdelatty following the Second Ministerial Conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum (Cairo, December 20, 2025)
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💬Sergey Lavrov: We conducted a thorough discussion of the full Russian-African agenda. Our focus was in particular on reviewing the implementation of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan for 2023-2026 and on identifying further steps to expand our trade, economic, and investment cooperation – a partnership that is growing rapidly and which we are committed to strengthening.
We have agreed to create conditions that facilitate concrete steps to increase mutual trade and to implement promising joint investment projects in high-tech industries, all aspects of energy and other areas, including in cultural, humanitarian and educational spheres.
All these areas of practical cooperation are detailed in the comprehensive Joint Statement, which was unanimously approved and which will serve as the central guideline for our future work.
Importantly, this document places special emphasis, within the trade and economic sphere, on establishing resilient financial, logistical, and interbank mechanisms that will safeguard our partnership from illegal unilateral sanctions – a practice our joint statement clearly defines as unacceptable.
The Joint Statement also captures the progress of our discussions on pressing international and regional issues, including those of global significance.
We decided to continue coordinating our efforts in multilateral forums. This includes advancing the reform of the UN Security Council, taking full account of the legitimate interests of African states, and reforming the Bretton Woods institutions, whose composition and practices significantly lag behind today’s global economic realities.
I would like to highlight the section of the Statement that outlines our shared fundamental approaches to key issues of international development. In particular, I note the clear position that all states must respect the principles of the UN Charter not selectively but in their entirety and interdependent integrity.
Significant attention in the Statement is devoted to strengthening the independence of our African friends, particularly in the economic sphere. To protect their right to independent development, their right to choose their own partners and foreign policy priorities, the Statement proclaims our clear support for the recent UN General Assembly resolution establishing December 14 as the annual International Day Against Colonialism in All Its Forms and Manifestations. This will serve to intensify our shared efforts at the UN to eradicate contemporary forms of colonialism and neocolonial practices.
Finally, our shared position on the urgent resolution of the Palestinian issue, in full compliance with existing UN resolutions, as my colleague detailed, is clearly enshrined in the Statement.
The Joint Statement also contains our shared decision to strengthen cooperation in politics and security. It is one of the reasons why we have recommended establishing working relations between the African Union and the CSTO.
The Forum programme offered a whole range of sideline events, including a business event involving representatives of economic and trade agencies and organisations from Russia and African countries. You certainly know that the Russian delegation had a great number of bilateral meetings – over 20 of them – with the ministers of our African partners. We benefited from useful discussions of bilateral relations and their development. In some cases, agreements and memorandums covering different areas were signed.
🎙Interview of Tatyana Dovgalenko, Director of the Department for Partnership with Africa of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to RIA Novosti news agency (February 20, 2025)
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❓ Question: What are the major areas of work within the newly established Department for Partnership with Africa?
💬 Tatyana Dovgalenko: Our task is to develop comprehensive relations with Africa and strengthen their truly strategic nature. Today, it is a dynamically developing continent. The enormous human capital of the African nations is just as much a guarantee of their economic sovereignty as their vast natural resources.
❓ Question: What do you think triggered the development of Russia-Africa relations?
💬 Tatyana Dovgalenko: In recent years, Russian-African cooperation has advanced to a completely new level. The first and second Russia-Africa Summits and the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum held last November gave a powerful boost to this process.
Together with our African friends, we are working to implement the agreements reached, based on the Action Plan adopted at the summit meeting in St Petersburg. <...>
Efforts to build relations with its leading organisation, the African Union, as well as the continent’s regional and subregional associations, alliances of states, multilateral formats and mechanisms, are another key area of our Department’s work.
❓ Question: How do you assess Russia-Africa mutual trade? In which domains are investment projects being pursued?
💬 Tatyana Dovgalenko: The volume of trade and economic cooperation, which reached a record high of $24.5 billion in 2023, keeps growing. <...> Work is underway to implement major investment projects on the continent, including in energy, creation of transport and logistics chains, building a secure mutual payments system, and high technology, including space exploration and digital technologies.
❓ Question: How does Moscow assess the efforts by the Alliance of Sahel States to counter terrorism?
💬 Tatyana Dovgalenko: The establishment of the Alliance of Sahel States confederation is an essential step in consolidating the efforts by Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to ensure national security and resolve socio-economic problems. <...>
The alliance’s major goal is to counter the terrorist threat in the Sahara-Sahel zone. The situation in the region is indeed complicated, including due to the Westefforts which was directly involved in the destruction of Libyan statehood in 2011. <...>
Russia is providing assistance both in boosting counter-terrorism capabilities and improving the combat effectiveness of national armed forces by sending military specialists and equipment as well as training military and law enforcement personnel, and in the socio-economic development of the countries in the region.
❓ Question: Are new food aid deliveries to Africa planned through WFP? Who is likely to receive them soon? When and in what amounts?
💬 Tatyana Dovgalenko: Our country provides humanitarian aid to the needy population of African countries both via bilateral channels and international organisations. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is the key multilateral channel for us to provide such assistance. <...>
Last year was no exception, with the Russian Government providing the programme with the necessary funding to supply Russian food to Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, and Sudan.
However, due to the sanctions imposed by Washington on Russian financial institutions in November 2024 <...> it has not yet been possible to transfer the funds.
❓ Question: What is the current status of Russia’s educational cooperation with Africa?
💬 Tatyana Dovgalenko: More than 34,000 African students are studying in the Russian Federation, including some 7,000 whose studies are funded from the Russian federal budget.
#RussiaAfrica
🎙 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to questions during a closing ceremony of the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum (Sochi, November 10, 2024)
💬 We have accomplished quite a lot. We have adopted documents - a Joint Statement, which includes a general overview of the international situation and the state of affairs in our partnership in areas such as the economy, social matters, investment, security, counterterrorism, and other newly arisen challenges, as well as cultural, educational, and humanitarian areas.
These are supported byspecific agreements in each of these areas, which create a series of roadmaps that will be advanced in the near future, including as part of preparations for the second ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum.
<…>
❗️ One of the objectives that we outlined which was brought up during all bilateral meetings with my African friends concerns the importance of moving away from reliance on global mechanisms that are controlled by our “colleagues” from the West. We all had the chance to clearly see (and to discuss extensively) that the “globalisation” that the West has long touted as a perfect model for the global economy is now being dismantled by the West itself. The ongoing economic fragmentation is driven by sanctions and over-reliance on the US dollar.
<…>
We’re witnessing a new wave of resistance to neocolonialism which is using trade, economic, and financial practices that prevent African countries from fully controlling their abundant natural resources.
<…>
We used the past two decades to steadily build up our partnerships with Africa based on traditions laid down in the post-colonial period. We hope they contributed to building an independent economy and industry in many African countries
***
Today, we not only exchanged praise, but also came up with a number of suggestions. However, this was done without any attempt to impose our own terms or to resort to blackmail. Such tactics are often observed in the actions of the West, which is desperately attempting to decelerate the powerful and objective trend towards establishing a multipolar world order, or ideally, to halt it.
<…>
Intimidation and coercion remain prevalent tactics employed by the West, including efforts to turn the Global Majority against the Russian Federation and China.
☝️In contrast, we employ different methods.
<…>
🤝 We remain committed to working in the spirit that guided the first and second #RussiaAfrica Summits.
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#RussiaAfrica
⚡️Joint Statementof the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum (Sirius Federal Territory, Russian Federation, November 10, 2024)
✍️ We, the Foreign Ministers of the Russian Federation and African States recognised by the United Nations (UN), Leadership of the African Union Commission and of executive bodies of the leading African integration organisations, as well as their representatives, gathered on 10 November 2024 in the Russian Federation, Sirius Federal Territory, to participate in the First Ministerial Conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum.
We are pleased to note the strategic level of Russia-Africa cooperation, and positively assess the pace of the implementation of the agreements reached during the first (Sochi, 23-24 October 2019) and second (Saint Petersburg, 27-28 July 2023) Russia-Africa Summits and articulated in the final documents thereof, including the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan 2023-2026.
We reconfirm our intention to continue strategic-level engagement in order to achieve a world order that would ensure international peace and security for all, equal opportunities for the development of all States, preservation of their cultural and civilizational uniqueness regardless of differences in political, economic and social structures, geographical location, demographic, resource and military potentials.
We welcome the adoption by heads of delegations participating in the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership of joint statements on:
• measures to create a fair, transparent and equitable system of International Information Security;
• strengthening cooperation in the fight against terrorism;
• current issues of exploration and use of Outer Space for peaceful purposes.
We reconfirm the shared responsibility of the Russian Federation and African States for supporting the creation of a just and stable world order based on the principles of sovereign equality of States, non-interference in their internal affairs, respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and the right of all peoples to self-determination as provided for, inter alia, by UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, as well as the need to preserve national identity and national resources, cultural and civilizational diversity and to protect traditional values.
👉 Political Cooperation
We consider the development of constructive partnership with the African Union and the leading African integration organisations as a foreign policy priority of the Russian Federation and African States.
👉 Security Cooperation
We confirm the importance of the principle of "African Solutions to African Problems" in conflict resolution.
👉 Trade and Economic Cooperation
We express our readiness to continue joint efforts to strengthen the voice and representation of the African continent in the global economic governance architecture.
👉 Education, Health, Culture, Sports, Youth Policy and Media Cooperation
We welcome the dynamic cooperation between the Russian Federation and African States in the field of culture.
👉 Environmental and Climate Cooperation
We advocate for stepping up efforts to consolidate approaches to international environmental and climate issues within the specialised UN fora to prevent the politicisation of work in these areas.
***
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and African States recognised by the United Nations, Leadership of the African Union Commission and the executive bodies of the leading African integration organisations, as well as their representatives, who participated in the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia‑Africa Partnership Forum express their commitment to further working together in order to expand cooperation and ensure the success of the third Russia-Africa Summit to be held in 2026.
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