Kobiakov added that the “role of security provider” for African countries is a “practical, vital necessity” for the Russian Federation.
So far, Russia has signed contracts on regular military-technical cooperation with 33 countries of the African continent.
According to the TASS agency, this was stated at a press conference in Sochi on Saturday by the adviser to the Russian president, Anton Kobiakov, who is also the executive secretary of the organizing committee of the forum for the preparation and implementation of events in the Russian-African format.
The adviser to the Russian president informed about this on the sidelines of the first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, which started on Saturday and will last until Sunday.
The venue of the event is the Sirius Federal Territory, which was created in 2020 by the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin to develop the Olympic and environmental heritage.
Sergey Lavrov also promised to participate
About 1,500 participants are expected at the conference, including more than 40 ministers from the African continent. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will also take part in it.
They are supposed to talk about the interim results of the implementation of the decisions taken at the African-Russian summit in St. Petersburg in 2023. According to TASS, the discussions will focus on a wide range of issues – cooperation in the field of security, in the fight against terrorism, on preventing an arms race in space.
The topic of negotiations should also be partnership in the economy and investment support, food security, digitization of public administration, education, training of diplomats, healthcare and prevention of epidemics.
In its report on the African-Russian summit, the AFP agency recalled that Russia has been trying to strengthen its diplomatic, political and economic influence in Africa for a long time. Many leaders on this continent found a strong response to the narrative spread by Moscow about harmful neo-colonialism and Western hegemony.
