Sergey Lavrov commends outcomes of the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit

Addis Ababa, November 16, 2023 (FBC) – In an interview with RT News, Foreign Affairs Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, stated that forty nine countries participated in the second Russia-Africa Summit which took place in Saint Petersburg from 27-28 July 2023; of which 17 were represented by presidents and prime ministers.

The summit was fruitful and quality deliberations were held between the Russian officials and African leaders, the Foreign Minister said.

“The debate indicated the awakening of Africa, though Africa awakened from colonialism long ago. But the most popular topic at the summit was that Africa does not want any longer to be a continent which does not enjoy the richness it possesses,” he noted.

From the points discussed African leaders, we can say that most of the raw materials of the continent are being exported raw to developed countries and processed and sold with huge profit.

“President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was giving an example of the world coffee market. The volume of it he estimated, which is, I think, confirmed by the World Coffee Organization, at some 460 billion dollars out of which Africa gets less than 30 billion dollars selling beans, not even frying the beans. Everything, from the processing is being done elsewhere. The coffee industry of Germany alone gets more profit annually than all African countries,” he said.

“The African leaders said that they don’t want just to be given some free trade regime to sell their raw materials and natural resources. They stressed that they want technology to be brought to the continent. They want processing to be organized on the spot where resources originate from. And this was, I think, one of the key themes voiced at St. Petersburg Summit,”

“We agreed a declaration which has a very strong political message that we want the key principles of the international law to be respected, especially the principles of the United Nations Charter,”

“We also adopted a plan of action for the next three years. We adopted several sectoral statements including one against bringing weapons to outer space and information security, among others,” the Foreign Minister indicated.

“We agreed during the Russia-Africa Summit that there should be Russia-Africa ministerial meetings taking stock of what has been done and what should be done in the future to cement mutual cooperation,” Lavrov noted.