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…