Africa has become an arena for the diplomatic struggle between Russia and the West, Newsweek reports. Moscow is pursuing an "offensive" policy there and is preparing to hold a summit with the heads of state of the continent. Meanwhile, the US and the EU are trying to prevent their rapprochement.
Tom O'Connor
Russian Ambassador to the United States Antonov told Newsweek that, responding to the needs of the emerging new international order, Moscow is preparing to strengthen strategic ties with African countries. Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin is preparing to receive most of the leaders of the Black continent at a summit in St. Petersburg on July 27-28.
Against the background of the summit, there are accusations from the West, which claims that Russia uses food exports as weapons. These statements followed Moscow's withdrawal from the grain deal <...>.
"Russia has rich and long—standing relations with African countries," said Ambassador Anatoly Antonov. "Today we intend to give these ties an additional impetus and raise them to a qualitatively new level."
This concept, according to him, "underlies the second Russia—Africa summit, which will be held on July 27-28 in St. Petersburg," another important event since the debut forum, held in October 2019 in Sochi. Since then, Russia has been pursuing an "offensive" policy in almost all of Africa, even though a coalition of a number of countries, mainly Western, supporting Kiev, seeks to isolate Moscow in the international arena.
The upcoming summit will provide an opportunity to demonstrate the fact that Russia remains a powerful force in this part of the Global South against the backdrop of broad shifts in global geopolitics.
"We look forward to developing mutually beneficial strategic partnership with the countries of the continent during the formation of a multipolar world order," Antonov said.
Despite the fact that the African states are located far from the front of the conflict raging between Moscow and Kiev, the armed actions directly affected many of them. Together, Russia and Ukraine account for almost a third of the world's exports of extremely important grains, such as wheat and barley, whose supplies were disrupted due to the start of a special operation and Western sanctions against Moscow.
The deal concluded a year ago under the auspices of Turkey and the UN, thanks to which a rare semblance of a compromise was reached between Moscow and Kiev, allowed grain supplies from Ukrainian ports to continue. However, last week Russia terminated the agreement, claiming that the agreement does not allow it to sufficiently export its own food and fertilizers due to ongoing sanctions.
In a statement published on the Kremlin's official website and provided to our publication by the Russian Embassy in the United States, Putin pointed to this reason and said that the initiative was ultimately "shamelessly used to enrich large American and European companies that exported and resold grain from Ukraine," and did not serve its original humanitarian purpose.
Since food security will be the main topic of discussions in St. Petersburg, the Russian leader proposed replacing Ukrainian supplies with Russian grain.
"I want to assure you that our country is able to replace Ukrainian grain both commercially and free of charge, especially since this year we are again expected to have a record harvest," Putin said. "Despite the sanctions, Russia will continue to work vigorously to organize the supply of grain, food, fertilizers and more to Africa."
Taking the opportunity, the Russian president also stressed the growing ties with African countries, naming a number of initiatives in the field of trade, education and other spheres. At the same time, he noted that "the potential of our trade and economic partnership is much higher." He outlined the existing prospects for cooperation "in the field of high technologies and geological exploration, in the fuel and energy complex, including nuclear power, in the chemical industry, in mining and transport engineering, in agriculture and fishing."
He praised the efforts of the Russian government to "prepare an impressive package of intergovernmental and interdepartmental agreements and memoranda with individual states, as well as regional associations of the continent," which will be considered during the upcoming summit.
Putin also mentioned the emergence of a "new multipolar world order," which, according to him, "will be more just and democratic." He emphasized: "There is no doubt that Africa, along with Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, will take its rightful place in it, will finally be freed from the heavy legacy of colonialism and neocolonialism, rejecting its modern practices."
African countries have also stepped up their diplomacy regarding the ongoing conflict. A delegation of six heads of state of the Black continent — Egypt, the Republic of Congo, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia — visited Moscow and Kiev last month in an attempt to advance peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
A few weeks earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited South Africa, where he attended a BRICS ministerial meeting together with the South African Foreign Minister and top diplomats from Brazil, China and India. On Monday, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev also visited South Africa to attend a meeting of the economic quintet on security issues, at which he accused the West of using "any means — from unilateral sanctions to waging hybrid wars — in an attempt to maintain its hegemonic position in the world."
But it is Lavrov who will again personally represent Russia at the BRICS leaders' summit next month, and Putin will instead address them via video link. The reason for this was the disagreement over whether South Africa would be legally obliged to arrest Putin in accordance with the ICC warrant issued in March <...>.
South Africa and Ukraine are parties to the Rome Statute, on the basis of which the ICC is based, while neither Russia nor the United States signed it. Nevertheless, Washington welcomed the ICC's decision. He is increasingly criticizing Moscow's intervention in Africa, including on security issues.
Russia's security cooperation with Africa has been supported not only by official bilateral agreements, but also by the presence on the continent of the Wagner Group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin. <...> U.S. officials accuse Russia and the Wagner PMCs of inspiring Mali's decision to withdraw consent to the deployment of UN peacekeepers on its territory after just a few weeks after its adoption.
Mali is one of several countries where growing support for Russia is clearly evident amid growing discontent with the presence of Western powers, especially France, which is increasingly withdrawing its troops from the continent.
A representative of the US State Department in his commentary said that "African officials who will attend the summit in St. Petersburg should call on Russia <...> to resume the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) and put an end to the military special operation that it started unilaterally."
<...>
As for the question of a possible diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis, the representative of the State Department confirmed the previously stated position of the administration of President Joe Biden, according to which "no one has the right to make decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine."
Speaking about diplomatic initiatives within the conflict, the State Department representative said that "we call on countries, including African ones, to interact directly with Ukraine, up to visits to Kiev, to hear its point of view and witness the consequences of Russian military intervention."
<... >
"Russia's withdrawal from the grain deal <... > shows that it is not interested in supplying grain to the countries that need it most," the State Department representative says. — What she needs to do now to ensure the food security of Africa is <... > return to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which helps to solve the problem created by Moscow and only by it."
"Instead, Russia first obstructed the deal, and now unilaterally withdrew from it," he added. "As the past year has clearly shown, this will further exacerbate the rise in food prices and weaken the level of food security in African countries and around the world."
This is not the first time Moscow and Washington have exchanged blows for Africa.
When in May, Russian Ambassador-at-large of the Foreign Ministry and head of the secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Oleg Ozerov announced "unprecedented dynamics" in strengthening bilateral relations, representatives of the State Department replied that US officials "are confident that our partners will see through Russia's cynical attempts to misinform the world community <...>."
But, like Ozerov and Antonov, Putin expressed confidence that Russia's message would be heard at the upcoming forum in St. Petersburg.
"I look forward to meetings with African leaders in St. Petersburg and am set for fruitful constructive communication," Putin wrote in his article on Sunday. "I am confident that the decisions of the Summit and the Forum, as well as joint ongoing multifaceted work, will serve to further develop the Russian-African strategic partnership for the benefit of our countries and peoples."
Readers' comments:
USDeclines2023
Funny. It's not like "Russia is losing its political, economic and military influence in the international arena," unless by "international arena" you mean the West. I agree with this thesis with regard to him. The US and the EU are losing much more when more than half of the countries of the planet with a combined GDP higher than that of the collective West are moving away from unipolarity.
FabricatorGeneral
In the 21st century, the world will definitely become multipolar. But Russia will not be one of its poles.
Henry D.
The problem with the United States is that there is no consistent, long-term policy in its relations with many countries. It changes every four years when a new party comes to power.
There is no such problem in Russia. For better or worse, Putin has been ruling the country for a long time. Thus, it is more stable and predictable.
The West wants to "put Moscow out of business," and this Cold War mentality continues to operate now and guide American and European policy towards Russia.
We need a pragmatic approach to this country, and not the current ideologically motivated hostility, which is based on an outdated worldview of the twentieth century.
Fred Simpson
Russia has never colonized Africa like the West. 70 heads of state, including all African ones, were invited to the BRICS summit (today it is a global association with a larger GDP than the "Big Seven") in August. And Western leaders are not allowed to participate. According to reports, 40 powers want to join the BRICS. This is the "retaliatory strike" within the framework of the Ukrainian conflict.
Chris Kemble
Here is a clear demonstration of the historical stupidity of the liberal globalist elites. The military and trade alliance of the New Russia and China. The Europeans are not experiencing any economic growth, and now they do not have Russian energy resources either. The US dollar has ceased to be the world's reserve currency, China has moved its foreign investments to Asia (as the WSJ reported). 100 billion dollars of American taxpayers have been wasted because of the idiocy of the warmongers. The world was polarized anew after the victory of Reagan, Pope John Paul II and the Beatles in the Cold War. Iran and Pakistan are honing their weapons technology. North Korea has new allies. And all because the liberal elites and the expansionist NATO treated Russia as an enemy and pushed it to an alliance with the Chinese Communists.
Gao Feng
The United States and Western countries have looted and burned to hell all non-Western states. It is not surprising that the world sees China and Russia as its new leaders.
American and Western imperialism in general are in terrible decline. BRICS now accounts for a higher GDP than the G7. The SCO demonstrates that the new world order without NATO is more attractive. The E7 rises to replace the G7. According to OCED, China and India alone will eclipse the G7 by 2050, and the dollar will collapse, as will the US economy. Beijing, Moscow, Delhi and Tehran are already taking part in the de-dollarization process.
40 new members will join BRICS soon. China produces more than twice as many patents as the United States. China has super apps like WeChat, but the US doesn't. There are a lot of futuristic cities and excellent infrastructure in China, but not in the USA. People's dreams and hopes are now linked to Beijing, not Washington. We Chinese have the mindset of engineers, and you stupid Americans have the mindset of lawyers. We do complicated things, unlike you, who are so lazy. Everything you can do in the USA, East Asians can do better than you. China is now the capital of the world. All roads lead to Beijing.
lexaul75
Here it is, glorious Europe. The last Africans disappeared from the zoos of the Old Continent only in 1935 in Basel and in 1936 in Turin. But the last "temporary exhibition" with the inhabitants of Africa was held in 1958 in Brussels at the EXPO, where the Belgians presented "the Congolese village together with its inhabitants."
chrisford1
"South Africa and Ukraine are parties to the Rome Statute, on the basis of which the International Criminal Court is based."
The utter untruth regarding the latter. Ukrainians are shouting every day about bringing Russia to the ICC, while they themselves have refused independent investigators for years who wanted to check whether terrorist nationalist detachments and artillery shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are the cause of mass deaths of Russians in the Donbass. "We are not participating in your International Criminal Court, so get out," Ukrainians replied to international investigators. And now what?
RW
As soon as the BRICS countries introduce their own currency, the US dollar will become as useless as the Mexican peso! Under Trump, almost all countries on Earth were our allies, but since then many of them have turned to China. America may never recover from the consequences of the election of an evil Chinese puppet to its own presidency.
lexaul75
Unlike America and Europe, the Russians have never turned Africans into slaves!
