Some African leaders arrived in St Petersburg, Russia on Wednesday for a summit with President Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s government accused the United States and other Western powers of “outrageous” efforts to pressure many other heads of state from attending.
Kremlin described the two-day summit that opens Thursday in St. Petersburg as a major event that would help bolster ties with a continent of “1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage.”
“Today, Africa is asserting itself more and more confidently as one of the poles of the emerging multipolar world. The forum will provide a further boost to our political and humanitarian partnership for many years to come. It will serve as a crucial event for Russian-African relations, making them even more comprehensive and far-reaching,” Putin said in a statement.
“We remain committed to assisting our African partners in every possible way to help them strengthen their national and cultural sovereignty, to play a more active role in resolving regional and global challenges,” Putin said in Wednesday’s statement.
The 54 countries that comprise Africa make up the largest voting group at the United Nations. However, when it comes to resolutions passed by the General Assembly that criticize Russia’s conduct in Ukraine, Africa has been more divided than any other area.
It’s the second Russia-Africa summit since 2019.
Due to what the Kremlin referred to as crass Western efforts to dissuade African nations from participating, the number of heads of state who attended decreased from 43 then to 17 presently.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov deplored “unconcealed brazen interference by the U.S., France, and other states through their diplomatic missions in African countries, and attempts to put pressure on the leadership of these countries in order to prevent
their active participation in the forum.”
“It’s absolutely outrageous, but it will in no way prevent the success of the summit,” Peskov said in a conference.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, claimed that while only 17 heads of state would be present at the summit, a total of 32 African countries would be represented by high-ranking government officials or ambassadors.
Russia’s decision to withdraw from a treaty that enabled Black Sea shipments, crucial to many African countries, was widely condemned and highlighted fresh dangers to global food security, prompting the conference.
Two days after the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Kremlin has accused the West of trying to prevent the meeting. Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson of the Russian government said almost all African states have been put under unprecedented pressure, which to him “calls into question the sovereign right of African nations to choose their own Partners.” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he would use the summit to push for a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine. The summit will also address the future of the grain deal that had allowed Ukrainian sea exports until Russia withdrew from it last week.
