St. Petersburg – Venue for Second African Leaders Summit
With high optimism and desire to strengthen its geopolitical influence, Russian authorities are gearing up to hold the second African leaders' summit in St. Petersburg scheduled early November 2022. The gathering, as expected, will focus on enhancing further constructive cooperation and advancing integration processes within the framework of the African Union and a number of sub-regional structures.
*Kester Kenn Klomegah writes frequently about Russia, Africa and the BRICS. As a versatile researcher, he believes that everyone deserves equal access to quality and trustworthy media reports. Most of his well-resourced articles are reprinted elsewhere in a number of reputable foreign media.
In their first joint declaration,
emerging from the Russia-Africa summit, at the initiative of African
participants a new dialogue mechanism—the Russia-Africa Partnership
Forum—was created. The declaration stipulated that all top-level
meetings take place within its framework once every three years,
alternately in Russia and in an African state. It says further that the
foreign ministers of Russia and three African countries—the current,
future and previous chairpersons of the African Union—will meet for
annual consultations.
Understandably,
St. Petersburg, the preferred venue, was chosen primarily due to the
continuous political instability in Ethiopia. Initially Moscow bagged
hopes on using the Chinese financed and newly constructed African Union
headquarters, which has modern facilities for large-scale international
conferences and the Addis Ababa city itself easily accessible with
effectively built first-class Ethiopian Airlines network to and from
many African countries. An additional advantage is that African
government representatives and heads of many international organizations
work in this city.
South
Africa and Egypt, as possible alternatives, were thoroughly discussed
as South Africa and Russia are members of BRICS, and Egypt has excellent
post-Soviet relations. Reminding that the first summit held in Sochi
was co-chaired by President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah el-Sisi, who also rotationally during that year headed the
African Union.
The
large-scale Russia-Africa summit, held in Sochi in October 2019, and
described as the first of its kind in the history of Moscow's relations
with Africa, attracted more than 40 African presidents, as well as the
heads of major regional associations and organizations. According to
official documents, there were a total of 569 working meetings that
resulted in 92 agreements and contracts, and memoranda of understanding
signed as part of the summit.
The
first summit opened a new page in the history of Russia's relations
with African countries. Sochi witnessed a historic final communique, and
impressive pledges and promises were made in various speeches and
discussions.
Last
November, a group of 25 leading experts headed by Sergei A. Karaganov,
the Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and
Defence Policy, released a report that vividly highlighted some
spectacular pitfalls and shortcomings in Russia's approach towards
Africa.
It
pointed to Russia's consistent failure in honoring its several
agreements and pledges over the years. It decried the increased number
of bilateral and high-level meetings that yield little or bring to the
fore no definitive results. In addition, insufficient and disorganized
Russian African lobbying combined with a lack of "information hygiene”
at all levels of public speaking, says the policy report.
Writing
early January on the policy outlook and forecast for 2022, Andrey
Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council
(RIAC), acknowledged the absolute necessity for consolidating Russia's
positions in Africa.
"A
second Russia-Africa summit is planned for the fall of 2022. Its first
edition, held in Sochi in October 2019, raised many hopes for the
prospects of an expanded Russian presence in Africa. Obviously, the
COVID-19 pandemic has made some adjustments to these plans, preventing
the parties from reaching the expected levels of trade and investment.
Nevertheless, Africa still retains considerable interest in interaction
with Russia, which could act as an important balancer of the prevailing
influence of the West and China in the countries of the continent,” he
opined.
Kortunov
suggested, therefore, that 2022 could become a "Year of Africa” for
Moscow, a year of converting common political agreements into new
practical projects in energy, transport, urban infrastructure,
communications, education, public health, and regional security.
Some
policy experts expect high symbolism at the 2022 Russia-Africa summit.
For example, Andrey Maslov, Head of the Centre for African Studies at
Moscow's Higher School of Economics, said that preparations for the
second summit would shape the Russia-African agenda; visits would become
more frequent and Africa would receive greater coverage in Russian
media.
Instead
of measuring the success of the summit by how many African leaders
attended, as happened in 2019, the parties have to give greater
attention to the substance of the agenda, which is already under
development. Russia should try to increase its presence in Africa while
avoiding direct confrontation with other non-regional and foreign
players, he underlined.
According
to him, the volume of Russian-African trade increased, for the first
time since 2018, diversifying both geographically and in the range of
goods traded. Shipments of railway equipment, fertilizers, pipes,
high-tech equipment and aluminum are growing and work continues on
institutionalizing the interaction between Russia and the African Union.
"A
number of conflicts are also causing alarm, primarily those in
Ethiopia, Libya, Guinea, Sudan and especially the Republic of Mali where
France and the EU are withdrawing their troops. In 2022, Russia will
try in various ways to play a stabilizing role for Africa and assist in
confronting the main challenges it faces - epidemics, the spread of
extremism and conflicts, and hunger,” Maslov told The Moscow Times.
A
dialogue would begin on Africa formulating its own climate agenda, he
said, and added: "Africa is beginning to understand that it does not
need a European-style green agenda and will demand compensation from the
main polluting countries for the damage the climatic changes have
caused to the ecosystems of African countries. Russia is likely to
support these demands.”
In an emailed interview, Steven Gruzd, Head of the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA),
said Russia needs to upgrade or scale up its collaborative engagement
with Africa. It has to consider seriously launching more public outreach
programmes, especially working with civil society to change public
perceptions and the private sector to strengthen its partnership with
Africa. In order to achieve this, it has to surmount the challenges,
take up the courage and work consistently with both private and public
sectors and with an effective Action Plan.
He
told IDN: "I would largely agree that there is a divide between what
has been pledged and promised at high-level meetings and summits,
compared to what has actually materialized on the ground. There is more
talk than action, and in most cases down the years, intentions and ideas
have been presented as initiatives already in progress. It will be
interesting to see what has been concretely achieved in reports at the
forthcoming second Russia-Africa summit scheduled for late 2022.”
Despite
the challenges, Moscow plans to boost Russia's presence in Africa noted
Gruzd who also heads the Russia-Africa Research Programme initiated
last year at SAIIA, South Africa's premier research institute on
international issues. It is an independent, non-government think tank,
with a long and proud history of providing thought leadership in Africa.
Similarly,
Chris O. Ogunmodede, an Associate Editor at the World Politics Review,
wrote an analytical article in which he suggested Moscow demonstrateы
that it can be a productive actor on the continent in ways that African
citizens desire. So far, it has not managed to find a compelling way to
do so. Russia is not part of the growing trend of outside powers
competing for geopolitical influence in Africa.
As
for Russia's perception among African public, there is little evidence
there of a positive trajectory either. Only 9 percent of Africans placed
Russia at the top of their list when it comes to outside powers'
positive image according to a 2021 finding, down from 14 percent the year before, he wrote in his article published mid-January 2022.
According
to him, Russian public diplomacy and soft power in Africa are weak and
uncoordinated. That said, Russian engagement with Africa also has a
logic of its own, and the fears of a purported Russian "return” to
Africa are overblown. Russia's footprint on the continent as a whole
pales in comparison to that of China, the United States and the European
Union.
Without
doubts, Russian and African leaders will draw a comprehensive working
map based on the discussions in St. Petersburg. The summit achievements
will help to consolidate the aspirations of the African continent and
African nations as fully as possible, and to chart ways for
materializing common priorities of Russia and the African countries
within the framework of the African Union's Agenda 2063 and the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development.
*Kester Kenn Klomegah writes frequently about Russia, Africa and the BRICS. As a versatile researcher, he believes that everyone deserves equal access to quality and trustworthy media reports. Most of his well-resourced articles are reprinted elsewhere in a number of reputable foreign media.
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St. Petersburg – Venue for Second African Leaders Summit
With high optimism and desire to strengthen its geopolitical influence, Russian authorities are gearing up to hold the second African leaders' summit in St. Petersburg scheduled early November 2022. The gathering, as expected, will focus on enha