About the Forum

The Economic and Humanitarian Forum Russia–Africa Summit is a unique event in Russian-African relations.

The upcoming Forum is set to diversify the scope and nature of Russian-African cooperation, in turn setting the course of its long-term development.

Public discussions taking place as part of the event’s business programme will deal with the most pressing issues on the Russian-African agenda. Taking into account the full extent of cooperation between Russia and the African nations, which extends beyond economic activity, a decision was taken to expand the 2023 edition of the Forum with a significant humanitarian element.

The event will include a large-scale exhibition and a platform for holding business meetings.

History of the Russia–Africa Economic Forum

In 2019 Sochi hosted the Russia–Africa Economic Forum alongside the Summit.

The Forum was attended by African heads of state, representatives of Russian, African, and international business and government agencies, and representatives of African integration associations.

The Forum was a strategically important step towards creating favourable conditions for the development of trade and economic relations between Russia and Africa and also helped diversify the forms and areas of Russian-African cooperation.

A significant set of trade, economic, and investment agreements was signed following the conclusion of the Forum.

“We highly value the results of our joint work at the summit. I am sure the achieved results are creating a good foundation for further deepening the Russia-Africa partnership in the interests of our nations’ prosperity and wellbeing.”

President of the Russian Federation
Vladimir Putin

The Russia–Africa Summit, which is taking place in Sochi on 23–24 October 2019, encapsulates the historically friendly relations between the African continent and the Russian Federation. This Summit carries great significance as it is the first of its kind to emerge during a period of major global and international transformations. In response to the aspirations of the people it is representing, the Summit intends to build a comprehensive framework for expanding Russian–African relations into broader horizons of joint cooperation across different fields.

The African nations and Russia share a common understanding of international relations, based on the principles of respect for the rule of international law, equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of states, and the peaceful resolution of disputes. Both sides affirm their commitment to support multilateral actions to oppose new international threats, be they terrorism and extremism in all their forms, or declining growth rates. The two sides share a firm conviction regarding the importance of developing trade flows and supporting mutual investment in such a way as to ensure security, peace and development for the African and Russian people.

African countries have huge potential and opportunities that will allow them, once efforts to streamline their economies have been achieved, to emerge as real global players. In recent years, the nations of this continent have achieved major successes spanning the political, economic, social and administrative spheres. Africa has flourished in terms of growth over the past decade, reaching a continent-wide growth rate of 3.55% in 2018.

The African Union Summit, which was held in Niger in July 2019, continued the efforts of the African countries and saw the African Continental Free Trade Agreement come into force, along with its operational instruments. The agreement is one of the key objectives of Agenda 2063, an African development strategy that has been created to address the African people’s desire for prosperity and decent living standards.

These successes are opening up wide-ranging prospects for cooperation between African countries and the Russian Federation, and confirm the determination of African governments and their people to cooperate with multiple partners in order to establish mutually beneficial relations.

With this in mind, we express our hopes that the Russia–Africa Summit will help in the establishment of constructive strategic relations, based on partnership between two sides across various fields, and in the service of fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the African people and their friends in Russia.

President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abdelfattah ALSISI