2023 Russia–Africa Summit

For the 2019 event, see 2019 Russia–Africa Summit.

2023 Russia–Africa Summit
Host countryRussia
Date27–28 July 2023
MottoFor peace, security and development
Venue(s)Expoforum
CitiesSaint Petersburg
ParticipantsVladimir Putin
African leaders
Follows2019 Russia–Africa Summit
WebsiteOfficial website

The second Russia–Africa Summit was held at the Expo Forum in St. Petersburg on 27 and 28 July 2023, following its postponement, having been originally scheduled for October 2022 at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[1][2][3]

Attended by 49 delegations,[4] only 17 heads of state participated in the summit, with 43 previously attending in the first summit in 2019.[5][6]

The summit was attended by Yevgeny Prigozhin – leader of Wagner Group at the time – in one of his first, and final, public appearances in Russia since launching an unsuccessful rebellion. His Wagner mercenaries have supported the interests of the Russian government in several African countries.[7][8]

Putin said that Russia has written off $23 billion of African debt.[9]

Attendees

Delegations participating in the 2023 Russia–Africa Summit
  •   Head of state or government
  •   Ministers or ambassadors

Hosts

Other African countries

Heads of state

Other representatives

Organizations and other attendees

Countries that did not participate

According to several sources, a Nigerien delegation was unable to attend due to an ongoing coup d'état.[56][57][58] William Ruto, president of Kenya, refused to attend the summit and opted for the African Union (AU) to represent Kenya instead, with a spokesperson saying that he wanted to convey the message to the AU "to carry the wishes of the country at the Summit". He however subsequently attended the Saudi-Africa summit in November 2023 later in the year and the Italy-Africa summit in February 2024 despite saying he wouldn't in leu of AU representation[59]

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), a disputed state which is a member of the African Union, did not participate due to a lack of diplomatic relations with Russia.[60]

Russian invasion of Ukraine and Black Sea Grain Initiative

Further information: Black Sea Grain Initiative and World food crises (2022–present)
See also: Famine in northern Ethiopia (2020–present) § Effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 16 May 2023, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the leaders of African countries came up with a new initiative for peace in Ukraine.[61] In June 2023, a delegation from Africa, including representatives from South Africa, Egypt, Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville, Comoros, Zambia, and Uganda, visited Ukraine and Russia to call for peace.[62] On 17 June 2023, Ramaphosa and other African leaders met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. Ramaphosa called on Putin to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine,[63] but Putin rejected the delegation's peace plan based on accepting Ukraine's internationally recognized borders.[64] According to South African professor William Gumede, of the University of the Witwatersrand, the African peace initiative was treated with "disdain and disrespect" by Putin. Gumede said the visiting African leaders perceived that Kyiv being bombed during their visit to Ukraine was "humiliating... and then in Russia, Putin didn't even bother to listen to the delegation, basically interrupting them before they'd even finished speaking, implying there was no point in discussing anything as the war would continue."[65]

During the Russian-African summit, president Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo urged Putin that the Russian invasion of Ukraine must end and that the African peace plan should not be underestimated.[66][67] Ramaphosa called for peace in Ukraine and expressed concern about food security and rising fertilizer prices.[68] Without specifically mentioning the Russian invasion of Ukraine or any other war, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said that the "only justified wars are the just wars, like the anti-colonial wars. Wars of hegemony will fail and waste time and opportunity. Dialogue is the correct way."[69]

Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa voiced support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that he and Putin "discussed the need for prosperity through peace as well as how our countries can work together to assure food security across the continent", adding that the "victims of sanctions must cooperate".[70][71] Malian military leader Assimi Goïta and Central African president Faustin-Archange Touadéra, whose countries are increasingly reliant on Wagner Group mercenaries, also expressed support for Russia, with Touadéra saying that Russia "had helped to save its democracy and prevent a civil war", according to Reuters.[72] Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki openly denied the existence of the Russo-Ukrainian War during a meeting with Putin.[73][74]

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and other African leaders urged Vladimir Putin to renew the grain deal and allow Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea route.[75][76][77] On 17 July 2023, Putin withdrew from a deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain across the Black Sea despite a wartime blockade,[78] risking deepening the global food crisis and antagonizing neutral countries in the Global South.[79] Following Putin's withdrawal from the grain deal, Russia launched a series of attacks on the Ukrainian port cities of Odesa and Mykolaiv.[80][81] The Kenyan government called Putin's decision to block grain exports from Ukraine "a stab in the back" and said that the resulting rise in global food prices "disproportionately impacts countries in the Horn of Africa already impacted" by the worst drought in four decades.[8][78]

Putin offered to send "free supplies of 25,000 to 50,000 tonnes of grain" to six countries to make up for the withdrawal from the previous grain deal. The countries that were to receive free grain included allies of Russia: Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Mali, and Zimbabwe, as well as war torn Somalia.[82]

Summit events

26 July

During the sidelines of the summit, Putin held several bilateral meetings, including with Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed, and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, discussing trade, nuclear energy and other topics.[83][84][85]

Putin also talked to Dilma Rousseff, former President of Brazil and concurrent chairperson of the BRICS New Development Bank.[86]

27 July

During a plenary session, Putin spoke under a theme of "Technology and Security in the Name of Sovereign Development for the Benefit of Humankind". The session was chaired by Irina Abramova [ru], the director of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.[87][88]

Before the plenary session, Putin met with Comorian president Azali Assoumani, also serving as the concurrent Chairperson of the African Union, and Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission.[89] He later met with presidents Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique, and Évariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi.[90][91]

After these meetings, Putin had a working breakfast with the heads of African regional organisations including the African Union, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the East African Community, the Arab Maghreb Union, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Economic Community of Central African States, the Economic Community of West African States, and the African Export-Import Bank.[92]

Putin and Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa held a bilateral meeting to discuss Russia–Zimbabwe relations, during which he offered Mnangagwa a helicopter.[71] He also met with Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni.[70]

28 July

Many agreements were signed with participating African countries on this date. Leaders from the Comoros, Cameroon, Uganda, Libya, and the Republic of the Congo, alongside African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki, were among representatives giving remarks, with emphasized calls to Putin for an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[93][72] The summit concluded with a final declaration, as well as an official plan for implementing a Partnership Forum for 2023-2026 and a number of other documents.[94]

A bilateral meeting between Putin and Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki was held after the end of the summit.[73]

A confirmed sighting of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in the aftermath of the failed mutiny emerged, showing him meeting with Freddy Mapouka, a presidential advisor in the Central African Republic, and the head of the Cameroonian version of pro-Russian media outlet Afrique Media, at the Trezzini Palace hotel in St. Petersburg during the 2023 Africa-Russia summit.[95]

See also

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