“Russia and the African states stand together to build a new, fairer architecture of the world order, jointly upholding international law, the UN Charter and the central role of the UN,” he added.

Russia and the countries of the African continent “try to coordinate positions on key issues on the international agenda,” Putin stressed. “It is characteristic that our positions are very close or fully coincide in many of them,” he asserted, noting that this is evident in the main provisions of the political declaration of the summit, which has already been prepared for approval.

“We oppose unilateral sanctions and “punitive” restrictions against states, and the application of climate issues, the protection of human rights and the so-called gender agenda for unwanted political purposes,” he added, and emphasized that “We reject illegal practices such as unilateral sanctions and coercive measures, factually punitive, which hurt countries that have taken an independent course, creating economic problems on a global scale, holding back development.”

The president went on to state that Russia is increasing the supply of agricultural products to African countries despite the restrictions imposed on their exports.

“We are aware of the importance of an uninterrupted supply of food for the socio-economic development and the maintenance of the political stability of the African States. (…) in 2022 we sent 11.5 million tons of cereals to the African countries, and almost 10 million tons only in the first six months of this year. This, despite the illegal sanctions imposed on our exports,” declared the Russian head of state.

The Russian city of Saint Petersburg will host the second summit and the Russia-Africa economic and humanitarian forum on July 27th and 28th, under the motto “For peace, security and development”.

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