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Russian President Sends Message to Participants in First Russia–Africa Economic Forum

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a message to participants in the first Russia–Africa Economic Forum, which will be held in Sochi on 23–24 October 2019 on the sidelines of the Russia–Africa Summit. The events will be the largest of their kind in the history of Russia–Africa relations.

In his message, the President specifically highlighted the importance of developing cooperation between countries and the positive experience that has been gained from developing joint projects: “Russian-African relations, which have traditionally been friendly and partner-like, have intensified significantly in recent years both at the bilateral level and in various multilateral formats. We have not only managed to preserve the experience gained from fruitful cooperation in the past, but have also achieved new major successes. Positive trends have been seen in trade turnover numbers and in the investment flows, and joint projects are being developed in the extractive industry, agriculture, healthcare, and education. Russian companies are ready to offer our African partners their scientific and technological developments and experience in modernizing energy, transport, and communication infrastructure.”

Putin also expressed confidence that the Forum will become a unique platform for the discussion and adoption of constructive decisions that aim to enhance cooperation: “I hope that new areas and forms of cooperation will be outlined during the Forum and promising joint initiatives will be put forward that will help take Russian-African collaboration to a whole new level and develop our economies and the prosperity of our peoples.”

Source: http://kremlin.ru/events/president/letters/61739

The expanded version of the Russia–Africa Economic Forum programme is available here.

“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